Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 22;13(10):e0205927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205927. eCollection 2018.
Globally the trajectories of approaches in adoption and implementation of family planning programmes have varied subjecting to variation in cultural and political philosophies across the countries. Accordingly, the progress in family planning has varied over the time across the countries.
This study investigates long-term trajectories of demand for family planning and contraceptive prevalence rates and tests the hypothesis of convergence across the world countries.
This study used data from United Nations Population Prospects for 185 countries and regions during 1970-2015. Standard graphical, parametric and nonparametric convergence metrics have been used for testing of the convergence hypothesis.
The results suggest a substantial increase in the global average of both demand and actual prevalence of contraceptive practice across the countries, but the actual contraceptive use is yet to catch up with the demand. Our findings suggest that there is a convergence in contraceptive use across the countries, particularly since the mid-1990s.
A major part of the convergence in demand for family planning and contraceptive prevalence rate is due to its stalling in both developed and many developing countries and its increase in several developing and least developed countries. Family planning has a greater role in human wellbeing particularly enhancing reproductive, maternal and child health outcomes than being a mere tool for fertility reduction. Therefore, the emphasis is needed on family planning efforts in the lagged behind countries for global convergence of family planning.
全球范围内，计划生育项目的采用和实施方法的轨迹因各国文化和政治理念的差异而有所不同。因此，各国在计划生育方面的进展随时间而变化。
本研究调查了计划生育需求和避孕普及率的长期轨迹，并检验了全球各国趋同的假设。
本研究使用了联合国 1970-2015 年期间 185 个国家和地区的人口预测数据。采用标准的图形、参数和非参数收敛指标来检验趋同假设。
结果表明，全球各国对计划生育的需求和实际避孕普及率都有了实质性的增长，但实际的避孕使用率仍有待提高。我们的研究结果表明，各国之间的避孕使用率存在趋同，特别是自 20 世纪 90 年代中期以来。
计划生育需求和避孕普及率趋同的主要原因是发达国家和许多发展中国家的计划生育停滞不前，而一些发展中国家和最不发达国家的计划生育有所增加。计划生育在人类福祉方面发挥着更大的作用，特别是在提高生殖、孕产妇和儿童健康结果方面，而不仅仅是减少生育率的工具。因此，需要在计划生育滞后的国家加强计划生育工作，以实现全球计划生育的趋同。
