Sociocultural Determinants of Modern Contraceptive Use across and within Seven West African Countries?

Megan L. Ledger, University of Southampton

Contraceptive use in west Africa remains low compared to SSA and in this region the use of contraception varies greatly within and across countries. This paper uses Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data from seven west African countries to investigate the role of sociocultural barriers at the contextual level in explaining the geographic variations in modern contraceptive use. Multilevel modelling was used to analyse the factors which account for the geographic variation in contraceptive uptake, taking into account the hierarchical nature of the DHS data. Preliminary results indicate that sociocultural alongside other contextual factors play a significant role in creating the geographic variations observed in modern contraceptive use in west Africa.