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Characteristics and attitudes of family planners in Khartoum, Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

M. A. Khalifa
M. A. Khalifa
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, Cairo University, Khartoum Branch, Sudan
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Summary

In a survey of 1475 urban Moslem wives in the age group 15–49 living in the capital city of the Sudan, knowledge of birth control was reported by almost all respondents while a significant proportion had used contraception at least once. The mean age of the users was 32·8 years, their duration of marriage was 15·1 years and their mean number of surviving children was 4·6. Those who had never used contraception had a higher mean age, a longer duration of marriage and more surviving children. Most of the users had an urban residential background and belonged to the high socioeconomic class. They held favourable attitudes to family planning. Although they thought that having a large family (more than five children) was not desirable, their mean preferred family size was no different from that of the never users.

The results indicate that contraception is used for the purpose of spacing births rather than limiting their ultimate number. At this early stage of contraceptive adoption in Sudan, the characteristics of the pioneer acceptors are similar to those observed in other African countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 7 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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