Free Access to a Broad Contraceptive Method Mix and Women's Contraceptive Choice: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT: Financial barriers may restrict women's ability to use their preferred contraceptive methods, especially long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC). Providing free access to a broad contraceptive method mix, including both LARC and short-acting reversible contraceptives (SARC), may increase contraceptive use, meet women's various fertility needs, and increase their agency in contraceptive decisions. Linking facility and individual data from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa, we use a propensity score approach combined with machine learning techniques to examine how free access to a broad contraceptive method mix affects women's contraceptive choice. Free access to both LARC and SARC was associated with an increase of 3.2 percentage points (95 percent confidence interval: 0.006, 0.058

SUBMITTER: Chang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7990714 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature