title: Women's reproductive autonomy and barriers to contraceptive use in Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine through the log-linear model analysis technique the impact of women's reproductive autonomy, spouses' educational background and other factors on the use of contraception in Pakistan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey 2000 were used. In this survey a national sample of married women aged 15-49 years (n = 6579) were interviewed. A number of socio-economic, socio-demographic and women's reproductive autonomy variables were taken for the log-linear model fitting and analysis, in order to examine the impact of women's reproductive autonomy on contraceptive use and the factors affecting this latter.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On the basis of partial and marginal association tests, two hierarchical log-linear models were selected. The first one concerned women's reproductive autonomy and contraceptive use, the second one analysed factors affecting contraceptive use. Standardized values of the model's parameter estimates showed that women's reproductive autonomy was significantly associated with husband-wife education attainment when they were using contraception. In the second model, contraceptive use was strongly associated with women's education, husband's desire for more children, sex preference for the next child and number of living children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An improved husband-wife educational level results in greater reproductive autonomy of the women and an increased use of contraception. The husband's desire for more children, a preference for the sex of the next child, and the woman's poor education attainment level are the main barriers to contraceptive use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. drazharsaleem@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Azhar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Pasha
mesh_terms: D003270:Contraceptive Agents; D003273:Contraceptive Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018454:Spouses
chemical_list: D003270:Contraceptive Agents