Determinants of female sterilization uptake in Uganda

Abstract

Despite its great effectiveness, safety and convenience for women who do not wish to have more children; female sterilization method uptake in Uganda is very low. This study aimed at establishing factors influencing female sterilization uptake in Uganda. This study used secondary data from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) of 2016, on a sample of 5601 women aged 15-49 years who were using any contraceptive method. Frequency distributions of the respondents by selected characteristics were conducted. The Chi-square tests were used to measure the association between the dependent variable (current uptake of female sterilization by women age 15-49 years) and independent variables. At the multivariate level, a complimentary log log model was fitted to determine the predictors of female sterilization uptake in Uganda. Results showed that the overall prevalence of female sterilization among modern contraceptive users was 6%.The complementary log log model results showed that female sterilization was significantly predicted by older age, middle wealth status, women who had born at least four children and decision making either by the husband/partner or jointly made between a woman and her husband/partner. Family planning programs need to focus on male engagement and consider rolling out interventions that include older women. Government and its other implementing partners need to scale-up efforts that increase accessibility to information on female sterilization services for women who have completed their fertility.