Is the KAP-Gap Real?

This analysis is based on data collected recently in Brazil the Dominican Republic Peru and Liberia. Brazil and the Dominican Republic are rapidly completing their fertility transition. Peru is at an earlier stage of fertility decline but is moving through the transitional phase and Liberia is a country at the pretransitional fertility stage with very little contraceptive practice. Evidence from these 4 Demographic and Health Surveys suggests that the KAP-gap--defined as currently married women who either want no more children or want to postpone the next birth who are not intending to use contraception and who are immediately exposed to the risk of pregnancy -- is negligible. The reasons for nonuse among this small minority cover a range of considerations including lack of contraceptive availability health concerns partner disapproval and cost. The significance of the finding of a very small KAP-gap is not the absence of an unmet need for family planning services but rather that the difficult problems of motivation religious and other objections to contraceptive use fatalism and health concerns are not the serious problems that may have been presumed and that the basic supply problem of contraceptive availability has been successfully met. (authors modified) (summaries in ENG FRE SPA)