Sarwer Md Nawal, Jahan Effat Ara, Chowdhury Akibul Islam
Department of Nutrition and Food Engineering, Daffodil International University, Savar, Bangladesh (Sarwer, Jahan, and Chowdhury).
Department of Food Technology and Nutrition Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh (Chowdhury).
AJOG Glob Rep. 2024 Dec 16;5(1):100434. doi: 10.1016/j.xagr.2024.100434. eCollection 2025 Feb.
Women empowerment is a crucial issue that is less studied as a factor of contraceptive use among married women that helps to achieve sustainable development goals.
This study aimed to assess the relationship between women empowerment and contraceptive use.
This cross-sectional study used 2017-2018 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data, which included 12,006 women (weighted) aged 15 to 49 years. Hierarchical logistic regression and structural equation models were used to show the relationship between women empowerment and contraceptive use.
Overall, increased use of contraception was associated with increased age, urban residence, increased wealth index, and education level of both the husband and wife. After controlling individual and locality factors, the findings from the regression model showed that women empowerment in terms of women decision-making, attitude toward violence, and social independence significantly influences contraceptive use (<.05). However, the structural equation model analysis revealed a negative but nonsignificant relationship between overall women empowerment and contraceptive use (β=-0.138; >.05).
This study implies that greater women empowerment may not always act as a stronger determinant of contraceptive use, and therefore, other contributing factors, such as age, education, religion, husband's participation, joined decision-making, economic status, and couple relationship, should be considered.
妇女赋权是一个关键问题，作为已婚妇女使用避孕药具的一个因素，该问题较少受到研究，而这有助于实现可持续发展目标。
本研究旨在评估妇女赋权与避孕药具使用之间的关系。
这项横断面研究使用了2017 - 2018年孟加拉国人口与健康调查数据，其中包括12,006名年龄在15至49岁之间的女性（加权）。采用分层逻辑回归和结构方程模型来展示妇女赋权与避孕药具使用之间的关系。
总体而言，避孕药具使用的增加与年龄增长、城市居住、财富指数增加以及夫妻双方的教育水平有关。在控制了个人和地区因素后，回归模型的结果表明，在妇女决策、对暴力的态度和社会独立性方面的妇女赋权显著影响避孕药具的使用（<.05）。然而，结构方程模型分析显示，总体妇女赋权与避孕药具使用之间存在负相关但不显著的关系（β = -0.138；>.05）。
本研究表明，更大程度的妇女赋权不一定总是避孕药具使用的更强决定因素，因此，应考虑其他促成因素，如年龄、教育、宗教、丈夫的参与、共同决策、经济状况和夫妻关系。
