Prevalence and Factors Associated with Female Sterilization in Rwanda: Evidence from the Demographic and Health Survey Data (2019-2020)

AbstractBackgroundFemale sterilization is a safe and effective surgical procedure of achieving contraception. There is disparity in the prevalence of female sterilization globally, with high income countries having higher rates than low- and middle-income countries. However, current evidence of the uptake of female sterilization in Rwanda is not known. We therefore evaluated the prevalence and factors associated with female sterilization among women of reproductive age in Rwanda.MethodologyThis was a secondary data analysis of 14,634 women of reproductive age (15-49) in Rwanda. The data utilized was from the Rwanda Demographic Health and Survey (RDHS) 2019/2020. The predictors of female sterilization were determined using multivariable binary logistic regression.ResultsWe found that the prevalence of female sterilization was 1.1% among women of reproductive age in Rwanda. Women older than 35 years had about 8 times higher chance of being sterilized as compared to younger women (aOR: 7.87, 95% CI: 4.77-12.99). Women living with their partners had higher odds of being sterilized as compared to never married women(aOR: 19.23, 95% CI: 4.57-80.82), while women from minority religion are more likely to be sterilized as compared to those of the catholic religion(aOR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.03- 4.37).Women from rich household had higher chance to be sterilized as compared to their counterparts from poor household (aOR: 3.13, 95% CI: 1.94-5.03). Women from western region were more likely to accept sterilization compared to women from Kigali (aOR: 2.025, 95% CI: 1.17-3.49) and women who had more than 5 children had higher odds as compared to women who had 5 or less children (aOR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.06-2.10).ConclusionThe overall prevalence of sterilization among Rwandan women of reproductive age was 1.1%, which was very low as compared to India (29%), China (14.1%) and United States of America (13.7 %). The age, marital status, religion, household wealth quintile, region and children ever born were associated with the uptake of female sterilization among Rwandan women. Public enlightenment campaign on the advantages of female sterilization should be done to improve uptake.