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Contraceptive practices adopted by women attending an urban health centre Prateek, SS & Saurabh, RS Abstract Background: India was the first country in world to launch - The National Family Welfare Programme in1951 but even today the couple protection rate (CPR) is still not achieved as desired. Objectives: To determine extent of awareness regarding contraception among married women. To estimate proportion of couples using contraceptive methods, identify reasons for their adoption & non adoption and to assess unmet needs for contraception. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study of four months duration was conducted among married women in reproductive age group (15 – 49 years) attending general out-patient department in Urban Health Centre (UHC) employing universal sampling method. Participants not willing to respond and pregnant women were excluded. Total of 180 women were selected as study participants. Every woman was interviewed face to face with pre-tested questionnaire after taking informed consent. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. Results: 94 (52.2%) were in age group of 20 – 24years. 52.4% of women were aware about contraceptive practices, of which only 32.2% of subjects were using contraceptive methods. Out of these subjects, 89.66% used temporary methods and 10.34% used permanent methods. Cu-T (41.37%) was most preferred method. 93 subjects (51.6%) had unmet need for contraception. Religion, education status and age at marriage were significantly associated with contraceptive usage. Conclusion: The results suggest a significant Knowledge – Application Gap with regards to contraceptives knowledge and their actual usage in study participants. Almost fifty percent of the subjects had unmet need for contraception. This shows the need for more intense awareness campaigns for promoting contraceptive usage. Keywords contraception, unmet needs, knowledge – application gap, family planning.

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