Prevalence of contraceptive practices and its associated factors among women in an urban slum area of North India: An observational study

: Contraceptive prevalence rate serves as a proxy measure of access to reproductive health services. It is an indicator of health, population, development and women’s empowerment. : To determine the prevalence and pattern of contraceptive usage and also the factors affecting among the married women of reproductive age in an urban field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine, JNU Institute of Medical Sciences, Jaipur; Rajasthan.: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in urban field practice area of JNU medical college, Rajasthan among women aged 15-49 years with calculated sample size of 402. A predesigned and pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used and data was collected with interview technique. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic details, reproductive history and current contraceptive usage. Data was entered in Ms Excel, analyzed using SPPS v.22 and represented in tables and figures. Chi square test was used to show the association and p-value <0.005 was considered statistically significant. : Currently 50.47% of the women were not using any contraceptive method. Maximum usage was of male condom 36.26%. Majority of the participants stated as it was husband’s disapproval (31.28%) for current non-usage of any contraceptive. Socio-economic status was not significantly associated with the contraceptive use.: In our study, male condom was the most common temporary contraceptive used. Misconception and fear of side effects related to the contraceptive usage was a major reason for non-utilization of contraceptives.