Women’s decision-making power and contraceptive use in Nigeria

What the paper says

Contraceptive use has been linked with women’s empowerment and positive health and well-being outcomes. This research examines contraceptive use in Nigeria using an analytical sample of 17,511 women in the 2018 Demographic Health Survey data, first modeling contraception use in general or Some Form of Contraceptive Use with logistic regressions, and second, considering Modern and Traditional Contraceptive Methods as separate, discrete outcomes for the first time using multinomial logistic regressions. We find that women are least likely to use some form of contraception when their partners alone make these healthcare decisions, and that women who make joint earnings decisions with their husband are more likely than women who make earnings decisions alone, to use contraception. Higher educational attainment, more wealth, increased age, being Christian or Catholic compared with Muslim, and living in an urban area are associated with using Some Form of Contraception, all else being equal. When considering Modern and Traditional Contraceptive Methods as distinct outcomes, we find that these same factors shape women’s use of Modern Methods and in similar directions and magnitudes, while most of these relationships hold in similar directions for Traditional Methods, this research fills the gap in modeling Traditional Methods and reveals novel regional differences in Traditional Contraceptive Use. Specifically, the South East and South West Regions are more likely than the North Central region to use Traditional Contraceptive Methods compared with using no method. Finally, we show that a Nigerian woman’s decision-making power, alone or jointly with her husband, translates into a positive influence on using any form of contraception.