Research Article Women’s Joint Decision on Contraceptive Use in Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Community Based Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Akine Eshete and Yohannes Adissu Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dilla University, P.O. Box 419, Dilla, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Akine Eshete; akine.eshete@yahoo.com Received 13 September 2016; Revised 2 December 2016; Accepted 30 January 2017; Published 7 March 2017 Academic Editor: Paul Van Royen Copyright © 2017 Akine Eshete and Yohannes Adissu. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A community based comparative cross-sectional study design was employed to assess the mutual consent of women about family planning use in urban and rural villages of Gedeo zone. Two-thirds (67.4%) of women made joint decision on contraceptive use, varying between urban (70.9%) and rural (63.4%) settings. Tis diference was statistically signifcant where women in urban setup had a 41% (AOR, 1.41; 95% CI (1.15, 2.01) added chance of making joint decision than the rural counterpart. In both settings, attitude towards contraceptive method was an independent predictor of joint contraceptive decision (AOR = 2.85) in urban and (AOR = 2.81) rural women. Contrarily, diferent factors were found to be associated with joint contraceptive decision in either setup. In urban, having better knowledge about contraceptive methods (AOR = 2.9) and having lower age diference (AOR = 2.2) were found to be strong predictors of joint decision on contraceptive use, while having too many children (AOR = 2.2) and paternal support (AOR = 7.1) in rural setups. Lower level of joint decision making on contraceptive use was reported in both setups. Factors associated with joint decision varied between the two setups, except for attitude towards contraceptive methods. Future family planning program should address sociocultural, knowledge and attitude factors. 1. Introduction Population increase is a continuous burning issue globally, with statistical fgure of 7.3 billion in 2015 which is expected to increase to 9.8 billion by 2050 [1]. In Ethiopia, 2 million people are added to the existing population annually and reached 98.1 million by 2015. Te expected population of Ethiopia by mid-2030 and 2050 will be 130.5 million and 165.1 million, respectively [1, 2]. If the rate of population growths continues, it will be a threat to the nation’s economy and social service [3]. In Ethiopia, contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) slightly increased from 29% and 34% in 2011 to 42% and 39.8% in 2014 among married women across the nation and Southern Nations and Nationality People Region (SNNPR), respec- tively. As a result the maternal mortality ratio declined from 676/100,000 live births in 2011 to 353 per 100,000 live births in 2015 [4–10]. Women’s decision on family planning use has multiple benefts to the family and community at large. Reports suggested that women’s participation in family planning decision has to infuence their reproductive health, overall health, and family balance [11–14]. Diferent studies revealed that women who are involved in any decision- making process are more likely to control their fertility by using contraceptives [9, 15–18]. Even though women have the right to decide their repro- ductive health issues, decisions are overruled by their respec- tive husbands’. Tis has a negative infuence on women’s fertility behavior [19–25]. Terefore, eforts need to be made for women involvement and achievement of their desired goals in relation to birth spacing or limiting. Furthermore, the role and infuence of husbands need to be taken into account when developing family planning services and programs [22, 26]. In Ethiopia, there exists a large variation on contracep- tive decision-making power among diferent geographical Hindawi International Journal of Family Medicine Volume 2017, Article ID 9389072, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/9389072