Measuring and Interpreting Men’s Use of Contraception in the Context of Multiple Formal and Informal Partnerships: The Case of Nigeria and Senegal

Ilene S. Speizer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Shane Khan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In settings where men use contraception with one partner but not another, measures of men’s current use of contraception are unlikely to capture men’s overall contraceptive use behaviors. This paper compares men’s reports of contraceptive use using multiple measurement techniques. Recent data from urban men from Nigeria and Senegal collected by the Measurement, Learning & Evaluation project are compared to male data from Demographic and Health Surveys from Nigeria and Senegal. Descriptive analyses compare men’s level of use (and methods used) overall and by partner. We show that at the aggregate level, men’s current use of contraception is similar to partner-specific levels. However, when we cross men’s current use with partner-specific use, about 20% of men have discordant responses; that is, the man says he currently does not use but reports use with a recent partner or vice versa. Recommendations are made for future studies of contraceptive use among men.