A comparison of sterilization use and demand from the Demographic and Health Surveys
Rutenberg, N.; Landry, E.
International Family Planning Perspectives 19(1): 4-13
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0190-3187 DOI: 10.2307/2133376Document Number: 316145
This analysis of sterilization use and demand uses data from 26 developing countries that participated in the first phase of the Demographic and Health Surveys between 1986-89. The data were taken from population samples that were representative of each country's particular demographic situation and rural-urban distribution. The findings showed that the percentage of couples who rely on sterilization and the proportion of total contraceptive use accounted for by sterilization are rising in Asia, Latin America and a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As of the mid-1980s, more than 25% of married women of child-bearing age were relying on sterilization (either female or male) in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While sterilization rates are still modest in most of sub-Saharan Africa, two countries, Botswana and Kenya, have a sterilization prevalence rate of 5%. Approximately, half of the demand for contraception to limit family size has been satisified by female sterilization in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In Bolivia, Botswana, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, where sterilization programmes are new or not a major component of family planning services, one-quarter or less of the demand for contraception has been met by sterilization. Among women who said they would prefer sterilization as their future method, 80% or more in 13 of the 16 countries for which data are available could name a source of sterilization. In 11 of 17 countries, one-third or more of the women who said they would consider sterilization had never used a modern method of contraception. In 10 of the 17 countries, more than 50% of women considering sterilization live in rural areas, and in all 17, the majority of women considering sterilization have only a primary school education.