Objectives: This study examines the effect of continuum care for maternal health service utilisation on intention to use family planning among the pastoralist community in Ethiopia.
Design: A community-based cross-sectional study.
Setting: Data were collected from three districts of the pastoralist community of the Afar region.
Participants: Randomly selected 891 married pastoralist women.
Primary outcome: Intention to use family planning.
Results: Intention to use family planning would increase (β=0.122, 95% CI: 0.036, 0.287) or by 12.2%, if all married pastoralist women received continuum of care for maternal health service utilisation compared with their counterparts. Results from the robust regression analysis indicate that intention to use family planning was higher among women who had a discussion about family planning with their husband (β=0.31, SE=0.035, p<0.001), women who possessed an electronic devices (β=0.096, SE=0.029, p<0.001) and women who had an unmet need for family planning (β=0.056, SE=0.026, p<0.000). However, intention to use family planning was lower for women who were in a polygamous marriage (β=-0.168, SE=0.065, p<0.01). There was a significant linear increase in the score of intention to use family planning for attitude towards family planning (β=0.009, SE=0.001, p<0.000), subjective norm (β=0.003, SE=0.001, p<0.003) and perceived control over family planning (β=0.002, SE=0.008, p<0.024) given other explanatory variables in the model.
Conclusion: Continuum of care for maternal health service utilisation increases pastoralist women's intention to use family planning. Maximising any opportunity to counsel women who come to health facilities about family planning would be vital to increase their intention to use family planning.
Trial registration number: NCT03450564.
Keywords: epidemiology; public health; reproductive medicine.
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