Role of Interpersonal Communication in Contraceptive Use Behaviour: Insights and Evidence from Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011

Manoj Raut, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Daliya Sebastian, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Ananta Basudev Sahu, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Objectives: This study tries to explore the role of exposure to mass media and interpersonal communication in predicting current use of contraception in Bangladesh. Methodology: Bivariate and Multivariate analyses were carried out on the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011 data using SAS software to explore the association between communication and current use of contraception. Results: After adjusting for related socio-economic and demographic factors, mass media does not seem to have any role in predicting contraceptive use behavior, while the findings show that interpersonal communication (Prevalence Ratio [PR]: 1.0984, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.0801-1.1170) is a strong positive predictor of current contraceptive use. Conclusions: It is a well-known fact that mass media performs only the knowledge function, while interpersonal communication performs an additional function of persuasion (Rogers, 1971). This analysis corroborates this statement that the role of interpersonal communication is quite important in predicting contraceptive use.