Delphine Cyuzuzo, Valens Munyembaraga, Aimable Gasana, Wen-Chun Liao
Contraception is essential for preventing unintended pregnancies, averting about 230 million births and saving over 272,000 mothers' lives globally each year. Although 40% of pregnancies worldwide are unintended, contraceptive use in Africa remains low, increasing only from 23.9% in 2012 to 28.5% in 2017. In contrast, Rwanda has seen a major rise in contraceptive uptake, from 17% in 2005 to 64% in 2020. This retrospective study examined factors influencing contraceptive use among Rwandan women of reproductive age using data from the 2019-2020 Demographic and Health Survey. Most participants were 35-39 years old, lived in rural areas, had primary education, were married, and had 4-6 children. Multivariate analysis showed that age, marital status, number of children ever born, education, religion, and wealth index were significantly associated with modern and current contraceptive use (p < .001), while residence showed no association. These findings underscore the importance of sociodemographic factors for strengthening family planning policies in Rwanda.