What Does Mass-media have to do with Contraceptive Uptake among Nigerian Women? Evidence from Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020

Background: Mass media plays an important role in information dissemination in Nigeria and studies have shown that the interrelationship that exists between reproductive health behaviour and mass media campaigns on the use of modern contraceptives have resulted in the improvement of reproductive health outcomes. There is a need to examine the differentials in mass media-related behaviour change communication for family planning among Nigerian women of reproductive age with respect to their wealth index and educational status using nationally represented sample.

Methods: We used data from the most recent round of publicly available data from Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) in Nigeria with nationally representative samples. The prevalence of lifetime contraceptive use was computed to provide the context in which birth dynamics are occurring across all variables and to examine the statistical significance of cross-tabulation results. We then conducted multivariable logistic regression to determine the factors associated with contraceptive use.

Results: The proportion of women in low wealth quintile were slightly higher (53%) than the rich women (47%). The mass media related behaviour change communication showed that women who had heard of family planning on radio were 60.7%, television, 38.2%, and on newspaper/magazine was 18.2%. Also, use of mass media in receiving information about family planning increases by increasing level of women’s education. Women from lowest household wealth quintile, and have heard about family planning on television were 1.63 (OR= 1.63; 95%CI: 1.13, 2.34) times as likely to use any contraceptive method, compared with those who did not hear about family planning on television.

Conclusion: Our findings revealed that Radio, followed by the television, were reportedly the main sources of family planning messages. Also, the use of mass media and socioeconomic status are associated with contraceptive utilization, and leads to increased use of a FP product.