THE INFLUENCE OF QUALITY OF CARE UPON CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Efforts to develop quantitative indicators of quality of care for fami ly planning services, and to evaluate its role in contraceptive behavi or, remain at an early stage. The present study, based upon an analysi s of prospective data from a sample of 7,800 reproductive-aged rural B angladeshi women, provides empirical evidence on the importance of qua lity of care for contraceptive practice. The results demonstrate that the perceptions of women regarding the quality of field-worker care we re significantly related to the probability of subsequent adoption of a family planning method. Women who were not using a method and who sc ored high on an index of perceived quality of care were 27 percent mor e likely to adopt a method subsequently, compared with women with a lo w score. Effects were even more pronounced for contraceptive continuat ion; high quality of care was associated with a 72 percent greater lik elihood of continued use of any method of contraception.