Microfinance participation and contraceptive decision-making: results from a national sample of women in Bangladesh

- Contraceptive decision-making by the husband was significantly lower where women participated in microfinance, suggesting that microfinance participation potentially impacts family decision-making.
- Contraceptive decision-making is more likely to be concentrated with the husband when he is over 45 years, suggesting that age may be an important factor in decision-making that needs to be considered further in future studies.
- Contraceptive decision-making by women was lower when women had more education and wealth.

ObjectivesOur objective was to assess whether microfinance participation affords greater contraceptive decision-making power to women.Study designPopulation based secondary data analysis.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study using nationally representative data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 we conducted multinomial logistic regression to estimate the odds of contraceptive decision-making by respondents and their husbands based on microfinance participation. Microfinance participation was measured as a dichotomous variable and contraceptive decision-making was conceptualized based on who made decisions about contraceptive use: respondents only; their partners or husbands only; or both.ResultsThe odds of decision-making by the respondent, with the reference case being joint decision-making, were higher for microfinance participants, but they were not significant. The odds of decision-making by the husband, with the reference case again being joint decision-making, were significantly lower among men who were partnered with women who participated in microfinance (RRR = 0.70, P < 0.01).ConclusionMicrofinance participation by women allowed men to share decision-making power with their wives that resulted in higher odds of joint decision-making.