Factors Affecting the Use of Contraceptive and Fertility Implications Among the Student of Higher Institutions in Kwara State, Nigeria

This paper exploires the factors affecting the use of contraceptive and fertility implications among students in higher institution in Kwara State, Nigeria. Contraceptive device are used by many women of reproductive age today within the age range of 15-49 years as a major driver of fertility. The objectives of the paper were: to determine the individual factors influencing contraceptive among students, to examine the fertility implications of contraceptive among students, to identify the community factors influencing the use of contraceptive among students, to evaluate the impact of state policy change use of contraceptive and fertility implications, the cultural influence on desired fertility and contraceptive use among students. The theoretical framework adopted for the study was the theory of planned behavior. The Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for the study, a total of 1,793 undergraduate students served as respondents used in the study from four (4) higher institutions. The multi stage sampling technique was adopted to select location and respondents for the study. The main instrument used was a semi structured questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion and in-depth interview guide (IDI). The IBM SPSS statistical analysis Version 26.0 Software was used to aid the data analysis. The major findings from the paper revealed that there is sexual activeness, knowledge about pregnancy risk and the desired number of children were found to have fertility implications on the use of contraceptive. The study concluded that contraceptive use influenced the decline in fertility rate in the country, thereby causing a decline in maternal and infant mortality rate. Recommendations have been made that religious leaders and religious bodies should be encouraged to preach against a relatively large fertility size, emphasizing on the negative implications