A COMPARISON STUDY ON DETERMINANTS OF FAMILY PLANNING METHODS AMONG RELIGIOUS GROUPS(CASE STUDY OF RURAL AREAS OF CITIES OF RAVANSAR & GILANGHARB)

The aim of this paper is comparison of determinants of contraceptive use among Sunni and Shiite women resided in rural areas of cities of Ravansar and Gilangharb in Kermanshah Province. In this paper, the effect of demographic and socio-economic variables on contraceptive method use, was analyzed and compared between two groups of women. The method of this research was cross-sectional survey. The data derived from among 550 eligible women using structured questionnaire. The results with regard to knowledge of family planning methods show that %16.4 and %7 of Sunni and Shiite women had a low knowledge and the rest had an average to high knowledge on these methods, respectively. The prevalence of method used at the time of the study for Sunni and Shiite women was %81.8 and %83.6, respectively. The method use was more prevalent among Shiite women. The probability of method use in both Sunni and Shiite groups was elevated with number of live birth. Among Shiite women, knowledge of family planning methods had a significant association with use of these methods. The higher the level of knowledge, the more method was used. For Sunni women, the probability of using contraceptive methods was 3.36 times when the monthly expenses of children increased from under 100000 Tomans, to over 100000 Tomans, significantly, while for Shiite women, there was no such association. For Sunni women, women whose duration of marriage was 10-6 years, the probability of method use was significantly greater than other groups.