The Association between Women's Empowerment and Modern Contraceptive Use in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to determine if women's empowerment is associated with an increase in the likelihood of modern contraceptive use among married women in Egypt. The study uses nationally representative data from the 2014 Egypt Demographic Health Survey (EDHS). Our final study sample includes 18,180 women ages 15-49. Empowerment is measured through employment, household decision making power, and justification of wife beating. Multivariate logistic regression is used to estimate the association between women's empowerment and modern contraceptive use controlling for age, education, socioeconomic status (wealth index), place of residence and parity. The prevalence of modern contraceptive use among women in the sample is 46% and 10% of women are classified as being highly empowered. After adjusting for covariates of interest, the odds of modern contraceptive use for women with high empowerment are 1.35 (95% CI: 1.18, 1.53) times the odds for women with low empowerment. This study suggests that programs aimed at increasing modern contraceptive use among women in Egypt must work to address women's empowerment as an integral part of improving reproductive health.Master of Public Healt