Factors associated with unmet need for family planning in sub-Saharan Africa: A multilevel multinomial logistic regression analysis

Background: More than one out of every ten married women in the world, and one out of every five women in Africa, have unmet family planning needs. Despite this, studies concerning sub-Saharan Africa as well as the community-level factors that may influence the unmet need for family planning are scarce. Objective: To assess factors associated with unmet need for family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: This study used the nineteen demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted between 2015 and 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa. A total weighted sample of 175, 820 women of reproductive age who were married during the survey was used for this study. To assess the factors associated with unmet need for family planning, I have employed a multilevel multinomial logistic regression model. After selecting variables using the bivariable analysis, a multivariable model was fitted. Finally, an adjusted relative risk ratio with its 95% Confidence Interval was reported and variables with a p-value less than 0.05 were declared to be significant predictors of unmet need for family planning. Result: The overall prevalence of unmet need for family planning in sub-Saharan Africa was 23.70%, of which unmet need for spacing and limiting was 15.81% and 7.90% respectively. In the multivariable multilevel multinomial model, women’s age, women’s education, age at cohabitation, heard about family planning through media, parity, number of under-five children, and knowledge about modern contraceptive methods were among the individual-level factors that were associated with both the unmet need for spacing and limiting. Place of residence, community level of women illiteracy, and region were among the community-level factors that were associated with both unmet needs for spacing and limiting. Household size and visiting the health facility in the last 12 months were associated with unmet need for spacing only and husband education was associated with unmet need for limiting only. Conclusion: Unmet need for family planning in sub-Saharan Africa was high. Both individual and community level factors were associated with both unmet need for spacing and limiting. Therefore, it is better to consider interventions at both individual and community levels.