Ayşe Yazan ARSLAN, Ömer GÜNEY, Ömer YAYLA, Mustafa ÇAVUŞ, Ahmed ALİ, Asuman OKUR, Cüneyt ARDIÇ
Türkiye Aile Hekimliği Dergisi - 2026;30(3):195-205
Objective: Family planning is the prevention of unintended pregnancies and the avoidance of excessive fertility. Arranging the interval between pregnancies is one of the basic requirements for a healthy pregnancy and postpartum period. The family medicine practice, implemented in Türkiye since the early 2000s, addresses this fundamental need. Our study was conducted to determine the prevalence of family planning methods, sociodemographic characteristics, and the relationship between pregnancy history and family planning method use among women aged 18-49 living in the central district of Rize. Methods: Our descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between 2022 and 2023 and included 413 women aged 18-49 who were registered at four Family Health Centers in the central district of Rize. Data were collected retrospectively from the Family Medicine Information System (FMIS) by the researchers involved in the study. In univariate analyses, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Chi-square tests were used. To identify the primary factors associated with modern method use, age over 35, and the number of pregnancies were included in the analysis. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results: In our study, 86.9% of individuals (n = 359) used family planning methods. Among those who used a method, 57.7% (n=207) used only modern methods, 25.9% (n=93) used only traditional methods, and 16.4% (n=59) used both modern and traditional methods. When assessing the relationships among educational status, employment status, smoking, and method use, only modern method use was significantly higher than the others (p=0.001). When evaluating the relationship between gravidity and the number of pregnancies by method-use status, the mean gravidity among users of modern methods or both modern and traditional methods was significantly higher than among those using only traditional methods (p=0.049). The primary variables associated with method use were identified as being a non-smoker, not having a child younger than two years of age, having no history of abortion, and the number of pregnancies. Conclusion: The study reveals a high rate of family planning method use in the central district of Rize province; however, adoption of modern methods remains an area requiring further development.
