Preferences for Contraceptives in Botswana

Paul Crits-Christoph and Chelsea Morroni of the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. will develop a mobile phone application that enables women to identify the method of contraception best suited to their needs to help reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in Botswana, which is currently estimated at 44%. Although around 61% of women are reported to not want any more children, the most commonly used contraceptives are single use, such as condoms, despite the availability of longer-term measures like intrauterine devices. They will work together with individuals in Botswana to compile a list of 10-20 attributes valued by women in a contraceptive, such as duration of protection and ease of use, and program existing software to identify a woman's preferred choice using a simple series of questions. The application will then be used to test their hypothesis that the method of contraception most suited to an individual is different to that being prescribed by health workers in Botswana.