SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILY-PLANNING CLIENTS AND THEIRPOSSIBLE INFLUENCE ON CONTRACEPTION IN MALAWI

In a survey of family planning clients at the Central Teaching Hospita l, Blantyre, between July 1 and December 31, 1993, to deter mine their social, biological and reproductive profiles, contraceptive awareness and previous use, 766 new clients were recruited and interviewed by m eans of partially structured questionnaire, Their mean age was 27 year s, with a range of 15-43 years. Adolescents formed 10.1% and those abo ve 35 years of age were 17.1%, 91.3% were married. While 12.6% had no formal education, 29.7% had secondary school education and higher. The ir mean parity and living children were 3.6 and 3.1 respectively, The mean desired fertility was 4.5, 93.3% of all clients had live births i n their last pregnancies, Contraceptive awareness was quite high, abou t 98.0%, However, only 30.9% had ever-used contraceptives before then, When these are looked at against a background of the corresponding si tuations in the country, it appears that the individuals seeking, acce pting and using contraceptives in Malawi, are better off in the variou s aspects of life, thus suggesting their possible influence on contrac eptive use. There is need to review the national family planning progr amme, address the contraceptive needs of adolescents and women aged ab ove 35 years, improve formal female education, change the prevailing s ocio-cultural and traditional beliefs and practices which affect women adversely, thus empowering them over affairs of their health.