Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

the community level by utilizing all health facilities, community health workers, women’s action groups,and community and religious leaders (imams and mullahs). The private sector and NGOs have also beenencouraged to play a more effective role in the National Family Planning Program (Sato, 2007).The following sections appraise the knowledge and use of various contraceptive methods. Thisinformation is of practical use to policy makers and program administrators in formulating effectivefamily planning strategies. Wherever possible, comparisons are made with findings from previous surveysto evaluate changes in family planning in Afghanistan over time.3.4.1 Knowledge of Family Planning MethodsKnowledge of contraceptive methods is an important precursorto use. The AMS 2010 collected information from currentlymarried women 4 on nine modern family planning methods—female and male sterilization, the pill, the IUD, injectables,implants, male condoms, lactational amenorrhea (LAM), andemergency contraception—and two traditional methods—therhythm method and withdrawal. Folk methods, such as plants andherbs, were mentioned spontaneously by some respondents.Information about knowledge of contraceptive methods ispresented in Table 3.13 for all currently married women by specificmethods. 5 More than nine in ten currently married women inAfghanistan know of a method of contraception, and women aretwice as likely to mention knowing a modern method as atraditional method (92 percent and 45 percent, respectively). Onaverage, women know of five different contraceptive methods. Themost widely known modern contraceptive methods amongcurrently married women are the pill and injectables (86 and 83percent, respectively). Male sterilization and emergencycontraception were the least known modern methods. Amongtraditional methods, over a third of women mentioned the withdrawal method.Table 3.13 Knowledge of contraceptivemethodsPercentage of currently married women age15-49 who know any contraceptive method,by specific method, Afghanistan 2010MethodCurrentlymarriedwomenAny method 91.8Any modern method 91.6Female sterilization 39.1Male sterilization 15.0Pill 86.0IUD 55.8Injectables 83.2Implants 23.5Male condom 58.5Lactational amenorrhea (LAM) 52.1Emergency contraception 13.2Any traditional method 45.4Rhythm 25.0Withdrawal 34.8Folk method 1.7Mean number of methodsknown by respondents 15-49 4.9Number of respondents 25,738Table 3.14 shows knowledge of contraceptives by background characteristics. Knowledge offamily planning rises with age to peak at 93 percent among women age 25-34 and then declines slightly.Even among the oldest age group knowledge is very high (91 percent). Rural women are less likely tohave heard of a method than urban women (90 percent versus 98 percent). Women from the Central zoneare most likely to have heard of a method (96 percent) and those from the South zone least likely (86percent). Region wise, knowledge is highest in the Western region (97 percent) and lowest in the SouthEastern region (75 percent). Knowledge of family planning methods rises with women’s education from91 percent among women with no education to 98 percent among women with higher education. Therelationship between household wealth and knowledge of family planning is U-shaped being lowestamong women in the middle wealth quintile and highest among those in the highest wealth quintile. Asimilar pattern is seen between knowledge and remoteness quintile.4 Questions on knowledge and use of contraceptive methods were not asked of six currently married women whohad not begun sexual intercourse at the time of the survey.5 Tables on contraceptive knowledge and use exclude 40 currently married women age 12-14; including them resultsin minimal changes to these tables.54 | Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning