Knowledge and Attitudes About Family Planning Among Adolescent Girls in Rajasthan: Results From PMA2020 Rajasthan Survey

Kristin Mmari, Johns Hopkins University
Ifta Choiriyyah, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Anoop Kahnna, Indian Institute of Health Management (IIHMR)
Danish Ahmed, Indian Institute of Health Management (IIHMR)
Scott Radloff, Johns Hopkins University
Alec Shannon, Johns Hopkins University
Caroline Moreau , Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)

Tracking adolescent’s contraceptive knowledge, is important for evaluating the extent to which India’s new Adolescent Health Strategy is shifting adolescent sexual and reproductive health indicators. The study uses data from PMA2020 project in Rajasthan conducted in 2018, including a probability sample of 1,126 girls 15-19 years. Results indicated that 15.7% of girls knew of no reversible method of contraception, 4.8% knew only of methods requiring male involvement, 25.9% knew at least one short acting female control method and 53.6% also knew about long acting reversible methods. Multivariate analysis indicated that lack of knowledge about any reversible method decreased with age, exposure to family planning messaging and counseling and exposure to unintended pregnancy risk. While 79% adolescents knew about effective female control methods, 38.6% of these girls feared adolescents would be seen as promiscuous if they used contraception and more than half (53%) felt too shy to seek services for contraception.

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 Presented in Session 2. Children & Youth