Objective: To determine the frequency of contraceptive use among illiterate employed females and to determine
the frequency and causes of unmet need of family planning.
Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Rawalpindi city from Jun to Nov 2015.
Material and Methods: Three hundred and sixty six illiterate and employed married women in the reproductive
age group were approached using non probability purposive sampling. They were interviewed by the researchers
through a pretested questionnaire. SPSS version 20 was used for data entry and analysis.
Results: Frequency of respondents using contraception was found to be 56%, 48.9% for the modern and 7.1% for
traditional methods. Unmet need of contraception was 17.6%. The main causes of unmet need were unwillingness
of husband and fear of side effect. Un met need was found to be significantly lower in the couples where spouses
mutually discussed the family planning, where females were high earners, or where women were having their
own business while no significant association of unmet need was found with family type.
Conclusion: Although there is high unmet need of family planning and low contraceptive prevalence rate
(CPR)among illiterate working women, having a paid job seems to improve female’s control on family planning
issues when compared to CPR of illiterate women in general.