Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
Pathfinder International, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 10;15(8):e0237512. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237512. eCollection 2020.
This study aims to examine associations between spousal communication about contraception and ever use of modern contraception, overt modern contraceptive use (with husband's knowledge), and covert modern contraceptive use (without husband's knowledge) among adolescent wives and their husbands in Niger.
Cross-sectional data, from the Reaching Married Adolescents Study, were collected from randomly selected adolescent wives (ages 13-19 years) and their husbands from 48 randomly selected villages in rural Niger (N = 1,020 couples). Logistic regression models assessed associations of couples' reports of spousal communication about contraception with wives' reports of contraception (overall, overt, and covert).
About one-fourth of adolescent wives and one-fifth of husbands reported spousal communication about contraception. Results showed couples' reports of spousal communication about contraception were positively associated with ever use of modern contraception. Couples' reports of spousal communication about contraception were negatively associated with covert modern contraceptive use compared to overt use. Wives' reports of spousal communication were marginally associated with covert use compared to no use but husbands' reports were not.
Among a sample of couples in Niger, spousal communication about contraception was positively associated with modern contraceptive use (compared to no use) and negatively with covert use (compared to overt use) but wives' and husbands' reports showed differential associations with covert use compared to no use. Since there is little understanding of couple communication surrounding covert contraceptive use decisions, research should focus on characterizing content and context of couple communication particularly in cases of disagreement over fertility decisions.
本研究旨在考察尼日尔青少年妻子及其丈夫之间有关避孕的配偶沟通与现代避孕方法的使用情况之间的关联，包括现代避孕方法的总使用情况、公开使用情况（丈夫知晓）和隐蔽使用情况（丈夫不知情）。
横断面数据来自尼日尔农村地区 48 个随机选择的村庄中随机选择的青少年妻子（13-19 岁）及其丈夫的“已婚青少年研究”（Reaching Married Adolescents Study）。逻辑回归模型评估了夫妇对避孕相关的配偶沟通报告与妻子对避孕的报告（总体、公开和隐蔽）之间的关联。
约四分之一的青少年妻子和五分之一的丈夫报告了有关避孕的配偶沟通。结果表明，夫妇对避孕相关的配偶沟通报告与现代避孕方法的总使用情况呈正相关。与公开使用相比，夫妇对避孕相关的配偶沟通报告与隐蔽使用呈负相关。与不使用相比，妻子对避孕相关的配偶沟通报告与隐蔽使用呈边缘相关，但丈夫的报告则没有。
在尼日尔的夫妻样本中，关于避孕的配偶沟通与现代避孕方法的使用呈正相关（与不使用相比），与隐蔽使用呈负相关（与公开使用相比），但妻子和丈夫的报告显示与隐蔽使用（与不使用相比）存在不同的关联。由于对隐蔽避孕决策背后的夫妻沟通的了解甚少，因此应该关注对夫妻沟通的内容和背景的研究，特别是在生育决策存在分歧的情况下。
