Table 2.

Prevalence of contraceptive use and intention to use contraceptives by predisposing, enabling and need factors, 2015–16 MDHS (N = 24,562)

Variable	Contraceptive use		Intension to use contraceptives
	N	%	N	%
Predisposing factors
Age
15–19	810	19.2	3402	76.2
20–24	2377	51.0	2286	84.1
25–29	2295	63.7	1309	77.9
30–34	2136	66.7	1065	70.4
35–39	1807	71.1	698	59.1
40–44	1091	76.7	331	35.6
45–49	678	81.1	151	17.1
P-value	< 0.001		<  0.001
Ethnicity
Chewa	3499	55.5	2809	73.6
Tumbuka	1167	56.6	895	61.9
Lomwe	2176	56.8	1655	72.7
Tonga	345	47.1	387	64.8
Yao	1049	48.3	1125	64.9
Sena	495	52.3	452	68.7
Nkhonde	150	54.2	127	68.6
Ngoni	1411	54.8	1166	69.7
Mang’anja	288	61.0	184	65.5
Nyanja	226	52.8	202	62.9
P-value	< 0.001		<  0.001
Religion
Christian	10,107	55.6	8079	69.8
Moslem	1020	47.8	1112	65.2
Non-religious	51	58.0	37	59.7
P-value	< 0.001		<  0.001
Highest education level
No education	1319	65.1	708	48.5
Primary	7148	56.7	5468	69.4
Secondary	2456	47.0	2774	76.9
Tertiary	271	48.1	292	69.0
P-value	< 0.001		< 0.001
Enabling factors
Wealth group
Poor	3884	54.9	3287	69.7
Middle income	4408	55.9	3471	69.5
Rich	2792	52.9	2484	67.9
P-value	0.003		0.170
Partner education level
No education	784	67.4	379	56.4
Primary	4999	68.4	2309	68.4
Secondary	2987	66.0	1542	76.3
Tertiary	574	71.8	225	66.0
P-value	< 0.001		< 0.001
Type of place of residence
Urban	2282	52.4	2077	70.1
Rural	8912	55.4	7165	68.9
P-value	< 0.001		0.221
Educated on family planning
No	144	56.7	110	60.8
Yes	1602	62.2	975	73.6
P-value	0.087		<  0.001
Region
Northern region	2168	56.8	1649	62.6
Central region	3969	54.1	3368	75.7
Southern region	5057	54.5	4225	62.7
P-value	0.018		<  0.001
Need factors
Desire of children
Both want same	4839	64.3	2681	71.2
Partner wants more	1403	64.9	758	66.7
Partner wants fewer	727	66.2	371	77.5
P-value	0.463		< 0.001
Ever terminated pregnancy
No	9967	54.1	8456	69.7
Yes	1227	61.8	786	63.7
P-value	< 0.001		<  0.001

Statistically significant at P < 0.05