Prevalence and factors associated with unmet need for family planning among the currently married reproductive age women in Shire-Enda-Slassie, Northern West of Tigray, Ethiopia 2015: a community based cross-sectional study

Introduction: Unmet family planning is one of the common causes for low contraceptive prevalence rate in developing countries including Ethiopia. Thus, this study designed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of unmet need in Shire Endaslassie town, Northern west of Tigray, Ethiopia. Methods: A community based cross sectional study design was employed. Multistage sampling technique was employed and data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire by interviewer administered technique. Questionnaires were reviewed and checked for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Reviewed data were entered to Epi info 7 and analyzed by SPSS version 20 statistical software. Variables with P-value of less than 0.2 in bivariate analyses were entered for multivariate analysis and AOR at 95% CI with p-value of less than 0.05 were considered as significant variables. Results: The overall unmet need for family planning in the study area was 109(21.4%). 74(14.5%) for spacing and 35(6.9%) for limiting. Age group of 35-39 and >=40 (AOR=2.7,95% CI: 1.1,6.5), (AOR=2.65, 95% CI: 1.10, 6.40) respectively, decided numbers of desired children more than five (AOR=O. 48, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.80), discussions of client with heath care providers (AOR=6.32, 95% CI: 2.56, 15.58), previous use of modern family planning (AOR=2.29, 95% CI, 1.20, 4.34) were significantly associated with unmet need for family planning. Conclusion: Unmet need for family planning in the study area was high, so continuous discussion on modern family planning with community health workers and encouraging of women to decide desired numbers of children of less than five in general are better to be strengthened.