Husbands' and Wives' Reports of Contraceptive Use

Bibliographic Data

ID10795259
AuthorsStan Becker (0000-0002-3251-9152, Johns Hopkins University, corresponding author), Elizabeth Costenbader (0000-0002-5104-7672)
Year2001
Volume32
Issue2
Pages111-129
Publication date2001-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Family Planning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-3665 • E-ISSN: 1728-4465
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1728-4465.2001.00111.x
PMID11449861
OpenAlexW2088854259
LanguageEN
Citations received41
References cited29

Many Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in the past decade have queried husbands and wives about their current contraceptive use. In this study, couples' concurrence on use and method used is compared by means of data from 23 countries, mostly in sub‐Saharan Africa. Husbands report higher levels of use than do their wives in every country studied, with ranges from 2 percent higher (Brazil) to 150 percent higher (Mali). Many of the discrepancies are the result of husbands' sole reports of periodic abstinence and condom use. Couples with polygynous husbands show less concurrence than do monogamous couples, although the majority of these differences could result from a data‐collection problem. Monogamous couples in which one or both spouses reported having extramarital sex partners show less concurrence than do monogamous couples reporting no other partners. Problems of validity of both husbands' and wives' reports are discerned, and in the few instances where a direct comparison is possible, wives' reports are shown to have greater validity. Logistic regression results show that spousal discussion about family planning and greater female education are consistent predictors of concurrence

Abstinence · Condom · Developing country · Economic growth · Family medicine · Family planning · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Logistic regression · Political science · Polygyny · Population · Psychiatry · Research methodology · Sociology · Wife · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Psychology