Incorporating husband’s influence in estimating unmet need for contraception using modified revised algorithm

Unmet need for contraception is defined as the proportion of exposed fecund reproductive age women desiring to limit fertility but who are contraceptive nonusers, and it has invaluable contributions to population dynamics policies besides engendering fertility discourses. Aligning with the continuous evolution of conceptualization, the fluidity of the robust measurement model was indispensable, stemming from a formula that identified a pool of reproductive age women in irrational situations, discrepant behavior, “KAP-Gap” and unmet need for contraception. Extant fertility literature suggests the possibility of some reproductive age women classified as having unmet need but genuinely have “no unmet” need. This study proffers that exposed women whose husbands have a virility issue attendant to genetic, health, social, and lifestyle factors may obliviously forgo birth control methods on the perception of reduced pregnancy risk. Upon incorporating husbands’ virility loss, this study generated a modified “Revised” algorithm and utilized 2014 Kenya demographic and health survey data to select 8,710 reproductive age women who met fertility criteria. Using Stata ® the modified “Revised” algorithm estimated unmet need for contraception at 16.4 percent, lower than national estimates by 1.1 percentage points, implying 6.6 percent overestimation. The “modified” estimates were highest among adolescents, rural dwellers, and residents of Northeastern region but decreased with increasing education and household wealth. This study has generated a modified “Revised” algorithm, confirmed overestimation of “unmet need” for contraception, incorporated overlooked husband’s virility loss, and proved reclassification of women from “unmet need” to “no unmet need.” These results, therefore, endorse incorporation of virility loss as a reason exuded by exposed reproductive age women for abstaining from birth control methods.