PMA2020: Using mobile technology to establish contraceptive prevalence and method mix in Kinshasa

1)      Purpose: The aim of this project is to use mobile devices to collect a representative sample of data from households in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, which will be used to estimate contraceptive prevalence and related indicators. This survey was the second in the PMA2020 survey initiative being conducted in selected countries worldwide.

2)      Data and Methods: The template for data collection was designed using ODK.  Interviewers were trained in mobile phone data collection. A total of 60 enumeration areas (EAs) within Kinshasa were randomly chosen proportionate to population size (from a total of approximately 330).  A household listing was conducted in each EA, followed by household and female surveys to randomly-selected households within each EA.  Data was collected for 2,197 women aged 15-49 within Kinshasa. 

3)      Results: Of the 2,197 women, 50% (1096) were married or living with a partner, and 11% (239) were sexually active but unmarried.  The percentage of married/partnered women using a method to prevent or delay pregnancy was 38.7% (95% CI 34.9%-42.6%), and 18.2% of married/partnered women were using a modern method (95% CI 15.0%-21.9%).  Among all methods, the most common was standard days/cycle beads (39%), followed by condoms (20%), and injectables (11%).  Of all modern methods, condoms were the most common method among married/partnered (42% of all methods) and unmarried sexually active women (69%). 

4)      Policy recommendations: Large scale data collection using mobile devices in settings such as Kinshasa is not only feasible, but offers great benefits for data collection and analysis.