IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON BY

This thesis is dedicated jointly to my loving husband Major General Dr. Anis Waiz who has stood by me through all trying times giving me both love and support, and my dear father Mr. Justice Mustafa Kamal who has patiently waited for this day and has also taught me to appreciate the inner beauties of life. ii In Bangladesh, use of modern contraceptive methods has increased dramatically in the last decade. However, the level of use has not been the same between rural clusters. This dissertation investigates the plausible reasons for areal variations in use of modern contraception in rural Bangladesh. This study randomly selects sixteen rural clusters as sub-samples from the 1991 Contraceptive Prevalence Survey of Bangladesh. Information from female respondents of eligible age, as well as family heads and family planning workers are collected along with cluster-level community data, and family level information. The data are analyzed using simple bivariate tables as well as more sophisticated multilevel analysis using the softwar