Abstract

Ethiopia is among the African countries with high maternal and child mortality rates, with a fast-growing population. To prevent the fast growing population; availability, the stability of contraceptive method and identifying factors that affects the practice of modern contraceptives should be given a priority. Thus, this study aims to identify the practice of contraceptives focusing on women’s empowerment and other gender-related factors among married women. Primary data were collected from 984 married women out of which 561 (57.01) were users of contraceptives in Amhara region. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and econometric models such as multiple and multilevel logistic regressions. The results showed that; zone, the educational status of the couple, the age of women, discussing family planning issues with a partner, decisions about how each partner’s income would be used, the income of women, wife beating and sexual response were significant factors in family planning. The multilevel analysis found that the variance of the random component related to the intercept term was found to be statistically significant, implying differences in the prevalence of family planning among the zone. It also found that the educational status of the couple, the age of the women, discussing family planning issues with a partner, decisions making in income earnings, the income of women, wife beating and sexual response were significant determinants of varying proportions of family planning.

Key words: Family planning, multilevel logistic regression model, women empowerment.