Factors associated with contraceptive use in Malaysia and Pakistan

Most developing countries launched the national family planning program in the 1960s/70s. However, some countries’ contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) remains low or stagnated. Despite having a similar religious belief, the level of contraceptive use differed between Malaysia and Pakistan. This study examines the factors associated with contraceptive use in Malaysia and Pakistan. This study used secondary data from the 2014 Malaysian Population and Family Survey and the 2017–2018 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey. A total of 5,175 Malaysian and 14,502 Pakistani currently married women aged 15–49 were included in this study. The dependent variable is current contraceptive use. The independent variables include women’s age, age at first marriage, place of residence, women’s educational level, employment status, and the number of living children. Crosstabulations show that urban, better-educated, and working women in Pakistan reported higher modern CPR than their rural, lesser-educated, and non-working counterparts; however, the opposite was observed in Malaysia. Multinomial logistic regression analysis reveals that rural women were less likely to practice modern and traditional methods than non-use in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the odds of practising modern and traditional methods than non-use were higher among women who attained at least primary education, while working women were more likely to practice modern contraceptive methods than non-use and traditional methods. However, women’s education and employment factors were insignificant in the multivariate context of the case of Malaysia. Enhancing women’s socio-economic status and reaching out to rural, uneducated, and jobless women are essential to improving contraceptive use, especially in Pakistan.