Effect of COVID-19 on the Need for and Access to Family Planning among Nigerian Women: Secondary Analysis of an International Survey

During the lockdown, there was a disruption in the provision of and access to family planning (FP) services in developing countries due to the covid 19 pandemic mostly because of restrictions on transportation, border closures, and closure of some healthcare institutions.

Aim: This study examined the impact of covid-19 on the need for and access to family planning among Nigerian women and access to family planning among Nigerian women.

Methods: Secondary data was used and the dataset was obtained from the COVID-19 Health Services Disruption Survey 2020 conducted by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (B, MGF), and Premise Data Corporation. Respondents were women between 15 - 49 years. Data were collected from 12, 354 respondents, and 391 were from Nigeria. Variables were measured immediately before the pandemic and during the pandemic (December 2019 – June 2020). Analysis was done using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. To summarize data, descriptive analyses such as mean, frequency, and percentages were used. Proportions were calculated to measure the association between the outcome and the independent variables with a 95% confidence interval.

Results: 46.5% of the respondents were 25 years old or younger. The proportion of women who reported needing FP services decreased slightly pre and during the pandemic (12.0% to 11.3%) but it was not statistically significant. There was a 4.7% decrease in accessing FP services which was also statistically significant.

Conclusion: This study found a slight decrease in the need for FP. This could be due to movement restrictions or a fear of contracting the virus from clinics, which would discourage people from seeking FP services. Anxiety and psychological stress caused by the pandemic would reduce the desire for sex and influence the perceived need for FP.