Agreement and concordance regarding reproductive intentions and contraception between husbands and wives in rural ballabgarh, India
Yadav, K.; Singh, B.; Goswami, K.
Indian Journal of Community Medicine Official Publication of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine 35(1): 19-23
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 1998-3581 PMID: 20606914 DOI: 10.4103/0970-0218.62548Document Number: 211750
Traditionally, women have been the chief respondents in most demographic and health surveys focusing on family planning; the role of men has been limited. However, in recent years there has been realization of the importance of men's role in family planning. To assess the levels of agreement and concordance between husbands and wives regarding reproductive intentions and contraception. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in 200 randomly selected married couples (in the age range of 15-44 years) in village Dayalpur, Haryana. Data pertaining to reproductive intentions and contraception was collected and the level of agreement (kappa statistics) between husbands and wives was calculated. The observed concordance was 67.5% for ideal family size, 84.5% for contraceptive attitude, 88.5% for fertility desire, 93.5% for unmet need, and 97% for report of number of currently living children. The adjusted kappa statistic varied from a low of 0.43 (P </= 0.001) (ideal family size) to a high of 0.96 (P </= 0.001) (number of living children) with contraceptive attitude (0.7) (P </= 0.001), unmet need (0.88) (P </= 0.001), and current use of contraception (0.93) (P </= 0.001) having kappa values in between. Overall, a greater degree of agreement was observed for reproductive health events as compared to family planning attitudes and intentions. An in-depth analysis of the responses in the current study provides further evidence of male domination in decision making. In surveys pertaining to reproductive health events, the wife's response can be taken as proxy for the couple's response, but for assessing family planning attitudes and intentions, there is a need to collect information from husbands and wives separately.