The relationship between client dissatisfaction and contraceptive discontinuation among urban family planning clients in three sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

Although researchers and practitioners have suggested that the quality of family planning services impacts contraceptive discontinuation, establishing a causal relationship has been challenging, primarily due to data limitations and a lack of agreement on how to measure quality. This longitudinal study estimated the relationship of the dissatisfaction with family planning services on contraceptive discontinuation for a sample of 797 female clients who sought family planning services at urban facilities across Kenya, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso. Clients who sought family planning services were first interviewed in person at private and public health facilities and received a follow-up phone interview four to six months later. In our sample, 18.2% of clients who were using a modern contraceptive at baseline stopped using it by follow-up. At baseline, nearly 14% of clients reported experiencing a problem with service convenience, nearly 12% with the availability of medicines and contraceptives, and nearly 6% with facility cleanliness and/or staff treatment. We hypothesized that client dissatisfaction with the family planning services received informed their decision to discontinue contraception and estimated univariate and bivariate probit regression models, controlling for individual and health facility characteristics. We found that client’s perceptions of staff treatment and facility cleanliness informed their expectations about service and contraceptive standards, affecting subsequent contraceptive discontinuation. The difference in the probability of discontinuing contraception was 8.2 percentage-points between dissatisfied and satisfied clients. Examining client dissatisfaction with family planning services can inform the family planning community on needed improvements to increase contraceptive adherence for women in need, which can prevent unplanned pregnancies and unwanted births in the long run.