Relationship between wife's education and spousal agreement on approval of family planning: A comparative analysis between two Sub-Saharan West African Countries

Background: Spousal approval on family planning is critical in contraceptive use dynamics. If a husband does not approve family planning it is difficult for a couple to use family planning even that wife approves this. Both contraceptive use rates and women's education are low in many West-African countries. It is widely believed that women's education is strongly associated with contraceptive use dynamics. Objectives: This study examines the role of wives' education in spousal agreement on approval of family planning in two Muslim majority sub-Saharan West African countries. Data and methods: This study uses matched couples' data from Demographic Health Surveys conducted in 2005/2006 in Senegal and Niger. Logistic regression models were estimated for examining the relationship between wives' education and couples' agreement on approval of family planning. Results: The likelihood of spousal agreement on approval of family planning is higher when the wife has formal education than when the wife has no education. Gross and net effect results suggest that wives with above high school education are significantly 2 times more likely to have spousal agreement on approval of family planning. Wives who are working for cash they are significantly (p<0.05) more likely to have agreement with their counterpart on approval of family planning. Couples with more than one wives are significantly (<0.05) less likely to have agreement between on approval of family planning. However the relationship is not significant in the case of Niger. Results show without improving the education of the females family planning programs may not sustain.