A systematic review on barriers to the use of contraceptive services and other family planning services among married couples in South Asia.
Description
Background: Barriers to contraceptives faced by couples in South Asia have not been captured in a systematic review. This systematic review explores the evidence on issues faced by married couples in South Asia regarding the use of contraceptives and other family planning services. Method: Systematic literature review was conducted in June-December 2021, covering the articles published in English in the preceding 10 years. The search for related articles was done using PubMed, EBSCO, and WOS. Inclusion criteria were: South Asian married couples, forms of contraception, barriers to using contraception and other family planning services. The retrieved articles were appraised in a qualitative manner for information related to the objective of this review and quality of the article. We used the themes of socio-economic status, religion, culture, gender preference and knowledge gap to analyze the content of the articles. The findings were grouped and synthesized to derive a meaningful conclusion. Results: A total of 253 publications were retrieved and then assessed based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of those publications, 40 articles were removed as duplications, and 137 were filtered out as they did not meet the inclusion criteria for this review. Thus, 76 articles were accepted for review. According to the publications, majority of barriers revolve around social, religious, and cultural issues. Various enabling factors were identified, including male dominance, needs, accessibility, role of law and mass media. While the lack of knowledge, religious aspects, financial aspects, cultural norms, and communication gap among the couples were found to be predisposing factors for the use of contraceptives.
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Institutions
- Universiteit Maastricht Care and Public Health Research Institute