Trends and pattern of contraceptive use among women attending a family planning clinic at a tertiary health facility in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Background: Despite consistent reporting of high fertility levels in Nigeria, contraceptive prevalence rates remain low. Information on the type of contraceptive uptake among women who visit family planning (FP) clinics is still sketchy in Ibadan. Therefore, we assessed the trend and pattern of contraceptive use among women attending a FP clinic at a tertiary health facility in Ibadan.

Methods: A mixed-method design was adopted for the study. Records of women (n = 1,619) who accessed FP services at the University College Hospital [UCH] from 2018 to 2022 were reviewed. The qualitative data included a key informant interview (KII) involving a senior officer of the FP Clinic and a focus group discussion (FGD) among high-fertility (≥ 4 living children) women. Data were analysed using a logistic regression model (α_0.05), and thematic analysis was used for the qualitative part of the study.

Results: The mean age of women was 33.8 ± 6.34 years, 87.7% were in monogamous marriages, 82.3% were Yoruba, and 47.2% did not intend to bear more children. The uptake of long-term and short-term contraceptive methods showed a declining (slope = -3.5) and increasing (slope = + 4.4) trend, respectively. The likelihood of non-use of a long-term contraceptive method was lower among women with ≥ 3 surviving children who had tertiary education (uOR = 0.539, 95% C.I = 0.338-0.859, p = 0.009) and were Christians (uOR = 0.410, 95% C.I = 0.258-0.652, p < 0.001) compared to their counterparts with at most secondary education and were Muslims, respectively. High fertility women who are not using Long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (LACMs) identified fear, partner's influence, misconceptions, cost, parity, privacy, and inconvenience as reasons for the non-use of the methods.

Conclusions: Conceptive uptake at the UCH followed an increasing trend from 2018 to 2022. Sensitisation on the adoption of LACMs among high-fertility women might improve the use of such methods in the study area.