Background: The study of family planning outcomes must take priority when the evaluation of family planning services is considered. Unmet needs of family planning, unwanted pregnancy, narrow birth interval, adolescent pregnancy, are considered adverse outcomes to family planning services underutilization.
Aim of the work: assessing the family planning outcomes in Assiut governorate in Egypt with stress upon rural/urban differences.
Subjects and methods: This study was carried out in the two randomly selected primary health care units from Assiut district (urban and rural). Non-pregnant currently married women in reproductive age who seek services other than family planning were the target. Pearson's Chi-square was used to evaluate statistically the differences between urban and rural Assiut. SPSS Program version 20 was used.
Results: The overall modern contraceptive use was 62.8% with a significantly lower level in rural Assiut when compared with urban Assiut (p-value=0.04). Regarding family planning outcomes, unmet need prevalence was 29% without any significant urban/rural differences. A higher percentage of urban women had less than 3 children compared with rural (p-value=0.01). Adolescent pregnancy was higher in rural than in urban Assiut (p-value=0.01). The most method used was pills in urban and rural areas, intrauterine device use was more in urban women (p-value=0.00), while the implant was used significantly higher among rural women (p value=0.00).
Conclusion: There were significant differences in family planning outcomes between the urban and rural Assiut. Rural women were more disadvantaged regarding that they were less modern contraceptive users, more parous, more had adverse outcomes like adolescent pregnancy.