Does access to family planning services vary by the educational attainment of women and their partners?

Despite experiencing a dramatic increase in the use of family planning services, the prevalence of unmet need for contraceptives in Bangladesh remains high. This study uses data from the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey to explore the association of educational attainment of both women and their male partners with the availability of family planning. Specifically, I study several outcomes linked to the availability of family planning knowledge and services: whether a woman heard family planning messages from mess media, field worker or health worker, the number of field workers working in the community, and the travel distance to the nearest govt. health facility. The possibility for a woman to obtain knowledge about family planning from any kind of mass media depends on both her and her partner's educational attainments. In turn, her educational attainment is strongly associated with : (i) whether heard family planning knowledge from a field worker or a health worker and (ii) the distance of the nearest health facility that provides family planning services. The results of this study suggest partners’ education, over and above women’s education, is an important predictor of the availability of family planning services. Policy focused on family planning programs should consider the partner's education while making their policy as partners knowledge and perception might be an important determinant of women’s health behavior.