Socio-Demographic Factors Influencing the Utilization of Modern Contraceptives among Women in West Pokot County, Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the socio-demographic factors associated with utilization of modern contraceptives among adult women of reproductive age (18-49 years) in West Pokot County, Kenya. Methodology: The study adopted a cross-sectional household survey and targeted 42,015 households in Pokot West sub–county. The study targeted one adult women of reproductive age (18-49 years) per household with a sample size of 396 adult women. The study utilized a questionnaire during collection of data. The study analyzed data descriptively and inferentially and the output is presented in tabular and pictographic formats. Findings: The findings indicated that utilization of modern contraceptives stands at 24.5% among women aged 18 years to 49 years.The demographic characteristics associated with the utilization of modern contraceptives among women are Age (OR = 4.8248, t = 4.15, p < 0.05), Age is associated with increased likelyhood of utilizing modern contraceptives, while education levels (OR = 0.5055, t = -2.05, p < 0.05), occupation (OR = 0.5965, t = -3.50, p < 0.05) and the parity levels (OR = 0.5744, t = -2.72, p < 0.05) are associated with decreased likelihood of utilization of modern contraceptive. The income levels (OR = 0.8744, t = -0.40, p > 0.05) and marital status (OR = 0.9844, t = --0.03, p < 0.05), are not significantly associated with utilization of modern contraceptive. Unique Contribution to Theory Practice and Policy: This study contribute to the body of knowledge that social demographic factors such as age, education lever, occupation, economic status are associated with utilization of modern contraceptives. This low lever of utilization of modern contraceptives noted in this study calls for targeted strategies such as health education to this risk population by health care workers and ministry of health dealing with reproductive services to improve modern contraceptive use among adult women of reproductive age. There is need to conduct further research on other counties combining social demographic factors and other social health care determinants associated with of use of health care services such as modern contraceptive use among women.