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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Adolescent Reproductive Health and Well-being
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1511606
This article is part of the Research Topic Child Marriage – A Global Adolescent Development Problem: Is the World Ready to Eliminate It? View all 5 articles

Determinant of unmet need for family planning among Adolescent and young women in Kenya: Multilevel Analysis using recent Kenyan demographic health survey

Provisionally accepted
Beyene Sisay Damtew Beyene Sisay Damtew 1*Hinsermu Bayu Abdi Hinsermu Bayu Abdi 1Beker Ahmed Hussien Beker Ahmed Hussien 1Getahun Tiruye Getahun Tiruye 1Nafyad Tolosa Urge Nafyad Tolosa Urge 2Biniyam Worku Yigzu Biniyam Worku Yigzu 2Sifan Ahmed Mohammed Sifan Ahmed Mohammed 1Bezawit Melak Fente Bezawit Melak Fente 3
  • 1 Department of midwifery, college of Health science, Arsi University Asella, Ethiopia, Asella, Ethiopia
  • 2 Department of Biomedical science, college of Health sciences, Arsi university, Asella, Ethiopia
  • 3 Department of General Midwifery, School of Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Unmet need for family planning (FP) refers to the proportion of women who are fecund, sexually active, and wish to delay or limit childbearing but are not using any effective contraceptive method. Unmet need for FP remains a significant public health concern, particularly among young women aged 15-24 years. This study explores the determinants of unmet need for FP among young women. Method and material: This study used data from the 2022 Kenyan Demography and Health Survey to investigate the relationship between various factors and a binary outcome variable of unmet need for family planning among adolescent young age group. A multilevel binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the data, accounting for the clustering effects of the survey data. The statistical significance of the relationships was assessed using adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. The model with the lowest deviance was considered the best fit for the data.Result: Magnitude of unmet need family planning among adolescent young age in Kenya is 25% (95% CI: 24.5%-26%). Determinants of Unmet need for family planning are age [15-19], undecided desire number of children (AOR: 2.3, 95%CI: 1.4-2.1), age at first sex 15-29 (AOR: 2.7, 95%CI: 1.2-6.2), rural residency (AOR: 3.9, 95%CI: 1.1-14), high community level poverty (AOR: 2.1, 95%CI: 1.1-4.5).The study finds that 25% of young women in Kenya lack access to family planning.Factors like age, desired family size, early sex, rural life, and poverty contribute to this. These factors create barriers that hinder women's ability to plan their pregnancies and access necessary resources. Younger women, those in rural areas, and those living in poverty are particularly affected. Addressing this issue requires a comprehensive approach that considers the specific circumstances of these vulnerable populations.

    Keywords: Unmet need, Family planning, Adolescent, Young age, Kenya

    Received: 15 Oct 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Damtew, Abdi, Hussien, Tiruye, Urge, Yigzu, Mohammed and Fente. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Beyene Sisay Damtew, Department of midwifery, college of Health science, Arsi University Asella, Ethiopia, Asella, Ethiopia

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