Distribution of contraceptive use in a Turkish population.

OBJECTIVE

This study is designed to estimate the distribution of contraceptive use among reproductive age women in a Turkish population (Turkey).

STUDY

DESIGN

We included 2365 women of reproductive age in this study. Women were given a questionnaire via a face-to-face interview.

RESULTS

During the time period just after marriage, 1914 women (80.9%) declared that they did not use any type of contraception. Among 451 women who had used a contraceptive method just after marriage, the most commonly used method was condoms (34.2%), followed by oral contraceptives (31.2%) and coitus interruptus (25.9%). When their history of contraceptive use was asked, 1903 women (80.2%) stated that they used a method of contraception while 462 women (19.5%) had never used any type of contraceptive. Distribution of contraceptive methods among women was analyzed and intrauterine devices were detected to be the most commonly used method (n=1046, 55%).

CONCLUSION

A point that should be emphasized is that there is a marked increase in contraceptive prevalence, and expansion of family planning activities in Turkey. This change, we believe, is due to improvements in health services of Turkey, realized in recent years.