Factors influencing continuation of IUD use in south India: evidence from a multivariate analysis.

This paper studies the correlates of IUD continuation, particularly in relation to quality of service provided in Karnataka, South India, by using a discrete-time logit model. Provision of follow-up services had a moderate influence on continuation, and medical check-up at insertion influenced the experience of side effects. But these effects were trivial in comparison with the overriding influence of motivational variables and of reported side effects. The IUD is retained for a limited duration in rural India where it is used mainly as a spacing device by lowly motivated young women who discontinue the method at the slightest feeling of discomfort or abnormality. If the IUD were recommended to older women for limiting childbearing by emphasizing its reversibility, it would enhance the method's popularity and improve the levels of contraceptive use among younger women.