Abstract

Modern contraception, a pillar of safe motherhood is known for its benefits including limiting
unwanted pregnancies and reducing infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. Modern
contraception significantly reduces up to 35% of maternal deaths, 13% of child mortalities
and up to 25% of under-five mortalities. This research aimed to explore factors associated
with the utilization of modern contraceptive methods among women of reproductive age (15-
49) attending the Jinja regional referral hospital in the Jinja district. The study involved the
use of a descriptive cross-sectional study design and a total of 365 randomly selected women
of reproductive age (15-49) at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital were enrolled into the study.
Data on the current use of modern contraceptives and related factors were collected using a
researcher-administered questionnaire after which the data was checked for completeness
and analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 25.
Factors associated with modern contraceptive utilization were determined using logistic
regression analysis and Chi2 square test while statistical significance was determined at pvalue≤
0.05 and 95% confidence interval. We enrolled a total of 365 study participants. The
prevalence of modern contraceptive uptake was found to be 30.14%. Factors associated with
modern contraception uptake included age, marital status, parity, number of living children,
age of the youngest child, caesarean delivery, and discussion of modern contraceptive use
with partner. After adjusting for possible confounders, multivariate logistic regression
analysis showed that only the age of the youngest child and the expected time to have
another child significantly influenced modern contraceptive use. Modern contraceptive use
in this study was low and independently associated with the age of the youngest child and the expected time to have another child. More efforts need to increase modern contraceptive uptake