Pill remains the top choice of contraception in Normin

Pill remains the top choice of contraception in Normin
             
            Population problems have been man’s concern since ancient time. Matters concerning the need to stimulate or retard population growth had received various opinions from statesmen and thinkers whose concerns ranged from political to social and economic considerations until modern population theory emerged in the current time. Thus, some economists had said that the use of contraceptives in modern times had made it possible to check population growth effectively making the ‘preventive checks’ and ‘positive checks’ introduced by Malthus irrelevant and obsolete.

            Speaking of contraceptives, the results of the 2011 Family Health Survey (FHS) conducted by the National Statistics Office revealed a decrease of the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) for married women in the Philippines from 50.7 percent in 2008 to 48.9 in 2011. Contraceptive prevalence rate is the proportion of women of reproductive age who are using (or whose partner is using) a contraceptive method at a given point in time. It is an indicator of health, population, development and women’s empowerment. It also serves as a proxy measure of access to reproductive health services that are essential for meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)s, especially the child mortality, maternal health, and gender related goals.

            The survey indicated that while use of any method decreased by 1.8 percentage points, use of modern method increased by 2.9 percentage points, that is, from 34 percent in 2008 to 36.9 percent in 2011. Traditional method, on the other hand, decreased significantly from 16.7 percent to 12 percent or a drop of 4.7 percentage points.

            Among the modern methods, pill registered the most common method with 19.8 percent displaying an increase of 4.1 percentage points over the results of the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) of 15.7 percent. The pill remains the most preferred method of contraception for both poor and non-poor women. It is used by 18.7 percent of poor women and 20.3 percent of non-poor women. Female sterilization follows with 8.6 percent. On the contrary, among the traditional method, withdrawal ranks first with 8.2 percent and rhythm or periodic abstinence comes second with only 3.7 percent.

            According to NSO Administrator Carmelita N. Ericta, the result of the 2011 FHS shows a significant shift in sources of pills from the public sector to the private sector. The public sector provided most recent supply of pills to on 32.0 percent of poor women in 2011 compared to 55.4 percent in 2006, as revealed by the Family Planning Survey conducted in that year. In contrast, the private sector provided supply of pills to 64.0 percent of poor women in 2011 compared to 63.8 percent in 2006.

Does Northern Mindanao follow the same trend?

Apparently, pill remains the top choice of contraception in Northern Mindanao with 22.3 percent and is even higher that the national figure. The results even showed an increase of 3.9 percentage points from 18.4 percent in 2008 NDHS. Pill might be very popular as a contraceptive method because of its availability and affordable price. Although male condom is also cheap and readily available in pharmacies, it still registered a low percentage of only 1.9 percent. In Northern Mindanao, the CPR posted at 53.9 percent in 2011 indicating an increase of 0.7 percentage points from 53.2 percent in 2008.

            On the contrary, currently married women in Northern Mindanao who were not using contraception registered at 46.1 percent. Among these non users, 56.4 percent cited that the main reason for non use was fertility – related and some 24.9 percent of women were opposed to family planning or prohibited by their religion while 14.1 percent reported lack of knowledge anent contraceptive methods. Moreover, one out of five women (19.2 percent) in Northern Mindanao was not using any contraceptive method because of wanting to have children.

            Such statistics speak of the trend in Northern Mindanao, and this shows that population growth rate cannot be viewed in isolation, because there are many relevant factors to consider.

Posted in: Press Release