Unmet need and demand for family planning among married women of Abha, Aseer Region in Saudi Arabia

To measure the unmet need and demand for family planning among Saudi women; to delineate the major reasons for not using contraceptives and identify the associated factors. This cross sectional study was conducted in six primary health care centres in Abha city among 402 women of reproductive age ranged between 15 to 49 years, having atleast one child. Face to face interview was conducted by using a validated questionnaire. The prevalence of unmet need was 32.6%. The proportion of spacers and limiters among this group was 65.7% and 34.4% respectively. The proportion of spacers among unmet need was significantly high among the younger age group and proportion of limiters were high in the older age group ( p = 0.001). The major reasons for not using contraceptives was inaccessibility of family planning methods (68.0%), lack of knowledge (59.5%), religious belief (49.6%), fear of side effects of contraceptives they had suffered in the past, and opposition by husband 42.7%. Unmet need was significantly high amongst the women with lower and older age group. Low level of education is significantly associated with unmet need for contraceptive ( p = 0.043). Around one third of the women in the present study have an unmet need for family planning and demand for Contraception for this population has been found to be high. All these findings point out the need of action in this regards.