Context: During the last 30 years, outreach camps have played an increasingly important role in Nepal's family planning program, by bringing sterilization services to mostly rural areas where they otherwise would not have been available. However, some concerns have been raised about differences in the social and demographic characteristics and quality of care between permanent and seasonal or mobile service delivery sites.
Methods: From a nationally representative sample of 8,429 ever-married women aged 15-49 who participated in the 1996 Nepal Family Health Survey, samples of 445 women who had been contraceptively sterilized in hospitals and 372 in camps were compared for their social and demographic characteristics, awareness of alternative contraceptive methods, first contraceptive method used and regret over having undergone the procedure.
Results: Women who were sterilized in camp settings and those sterilized in hospitals differed in their place and region of residence, although both groups were similar in age and parity at the time of sterilization. Roughly 92% of hospital clients and 95% of camp clients knew about at least one temporary contraceptive method. Four out of five hospital and camp clients reported that female sterilization was the first method they had ever used (80% and 82%, respectively). Nearly 12% of women who were sterilized in hospitals and 10% of women who underwent the procedure in camps expressed regret.
Conclusions: Camps do not imply less careful screening of sterilization clients or the provision of inferior quality services, and they represent an important means of meeting couples' demand for sterilization services in areas where hospital- or clinic-based services are not available throughout the year