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Global Public Health
An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice
Volume 13, 2018 - Issue 7
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Original Articles

Women’s agency and its relationship to current contraceptive use in lower- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of the literature

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Pages 843-858 | Received 29 Dec 2015, Accepted 13 Sep 2016, Published online: 01 Oct 2016

Keep up to date with the latest research on this topic with citation updates for this article.

Read on this site (12)

Maryam Vizheh, Yvonne Zurynski, Jeffrey Braithwaite & Frances Rapport. (2023) Determinants of women’s agency in accessing and utilising reproductive healthcare services; a systematic review. Culture, Health & Sexuality 0:0, pages 1-17.
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Zin Wai Htay, Junko Kiriya, Jennifer Lisa Sakamoto & Masamine Jimba. (2023) Association Between Women’s Empowerment and Unmet Family Planning Needs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Southeast Asia: A Cross-Sectional Study. Women's Reproductive Health 0:0, pages 1-16.
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Brittnie E. Bloom, Jennifer A. Wagman, Kristin Dunkle & Rebecca Fielding-Miller. (2022) Exploring intimate partner violence among pregnant Eswatini women seeking antenatal care: How agency and food security impact violence-related outcomes. Global Public Health 17:12, pages 3465-3475.
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Preethy D’Souza, Julia V. Bailey, Judith Stephenson & Sandy Oliver. (2022) Factors influencing contraception choice and use globally: a synthesis of systematic reviews. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 27:5, pages 364-372.
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Shannon N. Wood, Celia Karp, Amy Tsui, Simon Peter Sebina Kibira, Selamawit Desta, Hadiza Galadanci, Fredrick Makumbi, Elizabeth Omoluabi, Solomon Shiferaw, Assefa Seme & Caroline Moreau. (2021) A sexual and reproductive empowerment framework to explore volitional sex in sub-Saharan Africa. Culture, Health & Sexuality 23:6, pages 804-821.
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Siow-Li Lai & Nai-Peng Tey. (2020) Contraceptive use in Cambodia: does household decision-making power matter?. Culture, Health & Sexuality 22:7, pages 778-793.
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Kathryn M. Yount, Yuk Fai Cheong, Stephanie S. Miedema, Julia S. Chen, Elizabeth Menstell, Lauren Maxwell, Usha Ramakrishnan, Cari Jo Clark, Roger Rochat & Carlos del Rio. (2020) Gender equality in global health leadership: Cross-sectional survey of global health graduates. Global Public Health 15:6, pages 852-864.
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Goedele Van den Broeck. (2020) Women’s employment and family planning in rural Uganda. Women & Health 60:5, pages 517-533.
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Robin Richardson, Norbert Schmitz, Sam Harper & Arijit Nandi. (2019) Development of a Tool to Measure Women’s Agency in India. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 20:1, pages 26-53.
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Goleen Samari. (2019) Women’s empowerment in Egypt: the reliability of a complex construct. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters 27:1, pages 146-159.
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Goleen Samari. (2018) Women’s empowerment and short- and long-acting contraceptive method use in Egypt. Culture, Health & Sexuality 20:4, pages 458-473.
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Articles from other publishers (44)

Nishi Khatun, Sihab Howlader & Md. Mosfequr Rahman. (2023) Women’s Sexual Empowerment and Its Relationship to Contraceptive Use in Bangladesh: Findings From a Recent National Survey. International Journal of Public Health 68.
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Bolatito O. Ogunbiyi, Sarah Baird, Jeffrey B. Bingenheimer & Amita Vyas. (2023) Agency and role models: do they matter for adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health?. BMC Women's Health 23:1.
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Swati Rohatgi, Navneet Gera & Léo-Paul Dana. (2023) Antecedents of economic empowerment: an empirical study of working women in Delhi-NCR. Gender in Management: An International Journal 38:6, pages 784-803.
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Sarah Castle, Fiacre Bazie, Amelia Maytan-Joneydi, Kindo Boukary, Lisa M. Calhoun, Yentema Onadja, Georges Guiella & Ilene S. Speizer. (2023) “You could find a good or a bad provider, I would say you just have to go and see”: A qualitative study of the influence of perceptions of service quality on family planning service use in Burkina Faso. PLOS Global Public Health 3:3, pages e0001780.
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Madeleine Short Fabic, Lotus McDougal, Anita Raj & Apoorva Jadhav. (2023) Is the Decision Not to Use Contraception an Indicator of Reproductive Agency?. Studies in Family Planning 54:1, pages 95-117.
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Laísa Rodrigues Moreira, Cauane Blumenberg, Beatriz Elena Caicedo Velasquez, Fernanda Ewerling, Alejandra Balandrán, Luis Paulo Vidaletti, Andrea Ramirez Varela, Franciele Hellwig, Rodolfo Gomez Ponce de Leon, Aluisio J.D. Barros, Mariangela Freitas Silveira & Fernando C. Wehrmeister. (2023) The role of gender inequality and health expenditure on the coverage of demand for family planning satisfied by modern contraceptives: a multilevel analysis of cross-sectional studies in 14 LAC countries. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas 19, pages 100435.
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Maryam Vizheh, Frances Rapport, Jeffrey Braithwaite & Yvonne Zurynski. (2023) The Impact of Women’s Agency on Accessing and Using Maternal Healthcare Services: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20:5, pages 3966.
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Melody Nazarbegian, Sarah Averbach, Nicole E. Johns, Mohan Ghule, Jay Silverman, Rebecka Lundgren, Madhusudana Battala, Shahina Begum & Anita Raj. (2022) Associations between Contraceptive Decision‐Making and Marital Contraceptive Communication and use in Rural Maharashtra, India. Studies in Family Planning 53:4, pages 617-637.
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Helen Elizabeth Denise Burchett, Sally Griffin, Málica de Melo, Joelma Joaquim Picardo, Dylan Kneale & Rebecca S. French. (2022) Structural Interventions to Enable Adolescent Contraceptive Use in LMICs: A Mid-Range Theory to Support Intervention Development and Evaluation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19:21, pages 14414.
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Janani Vijayaraghavan, Ajita Vidyarthi, Alana Livesey, Lesley Gittings, Marcy Levy, Amit Timilsina, Danielle Mullings & Christopher Armstrong. (2022) Strengthening adolescent agency for optimal health outcomes. BMJ, pages e069484.
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Erica M. Rettig & Robert J. Hijmans. (2022) Increased women’s empowerment and regional inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1995 and 2015. PLOS ONE 17:9, pages e0272909.
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Jacqueline Banks, Stuart Sweeney & Wendy Meiring. (2022) The Geography of Women’s Empowerment in West Africa. Spatial Demography 10:2, pages 387-412.
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Katharine J. McCarthy, Diana Romero, Katarzyna Wyka & Heidi E. Jones. (2022) A Multidimensional Profile of Adolescent Agency in Uttar Pradesh, India, and Implications for Reproductive Choice. Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
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Tanja Tomašević, Snežana Ukropina, Vesna Mijatović Jovanović, Svetlana Kvrgić, Sonja Čanković & Dragana Milijašević. (2022) Self-efficacy and unwanted sexual intercourse: ‘Reproductive health education programme for high-school students in Vojvodina’. Slovenian Journal of Public Health 61:2, pages 93-100.
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Christopher Sutter, Babita Bhatt & Israr Qureshi. (2022) What Makes Resource Provision an Effective Means of Poverty Alleviation? A Resourcing Perspective. Organization Science.
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Md Abdullah Al Jubayer Biswas, Mohammad Abdullah Kafi, Muhammad Manwar Morshed Hemel, Mondar Maruf Moin Ahmed & Sharful Islam Khan. (2022) Women empowerment and sexually transmitted infections: Evidence from Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2014. PLOS ONE 17:2, pages e0263958.
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Federica Cavazzoni, Alec Fiorini & Guido Veronese. (2021) How Do We Assess How Agentic We Are? A Literature Review of Existing Instruments to Evaluate and Measure Individuals' Agency. Social Indicators Research 159:3, pages 1125-1153.
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Laili Irani, Supriya Verma, P. S. Mohanan & Avishek Hazra. (2022) Identifying the association of women’s empowerment with reproductive and maternal health practices using a cross-sectional study in the context of self-help groups in rural India. Gates Open Research 6, pages 72.
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Céline M. Goulart, Amber Purewal, Humaira Nakhuda, Anita Ampadu, Amanda Giancola, Jean-Luc Kortenaar & Diego G. Bassani. (2021) Tools for measuring gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) indicators in humanitarian settings. Conflict and Health 15:1.
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Caroline Whidden, Youssouf Keita, Emily Treleaven, Jessica Beckerman, Ari Johnson, Aminata Cissé, Jenny Liu & Kassoum Kayentao. (2021) Women’s empowerment, intrahousehold influences, and health system design on modern contraceptive use in rural Mali: a multilevel analysis of cross-sectional survey data. Reproductive Health 18:1.
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Maryam Vizheh, Salut Muhidin, Zahra Behboodi Moghadam & Armin Zareiyan. (2021) Women empowerment in reproductive health: a systematic review of measurement properties. BMC Women's Health 21:1.
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Sylvain Y. M. Some, Christy Pu & Song-Lih Huang. (2021) Empowerment and use of modern contraceptive methods among married women in Burkina Faso: a multilevel analysis. BMC Public Health 21:1.
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Jessamyn Bowling, Erika Montanaro, Sarai Guerrero-Ordonez, Stuti Joshi & Diana Gioia. (2021) Perceived Changes in Sexuality during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Adults in the United States. Sexes 2:3, pages 331-344.
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Preeti Priya, Anand Venkatesh & Anshu Shukla. (2021) Two decades of theorising and measuring women's empowerment: Literature review and future research agenda. Women's Studies International Forum 87, pages 102495.
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Abdullah Ijaz, Adnan Ahmad Dogar, Ikram Shah, Mohammad Saeed Lodhi & Shakirullah Dawar. (2021) UNDERSTANDING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN RURAL COMMUNITIES: A CASE STUDY OF SAHIWAL DISTRICT, PUNJAB PAKISTAN. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews 9:3, pages 607-616.
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Waqas Hameed, Mudassir Uddin & Bilal Iqbal Avan. (2021) Are underprivileged and less empowered women deprived of respectful maternity care: Inequities in childbirth experiences in public health facilities in Pakistan. PLOS ONE 16:4, pages e0249874.
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Fernanda Ewerling, Fernando C Wehrmeister, Cesar G Victora, Anita Raj, Lotus McDougal & Aluisio JD Barros. (2021) Is women’s empowerment associated with coverage of RMNCH interventions in low- and middle-income countries? An analysis using a survey-based empowerment indicator, the SWPER. Journal of Global Health 11.
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Benjamin Mwanzia Mulili & Jane Wanjira Njuguna. 2021. Gendered Perspectives on Covid-19 Recovery in Africa. Gendered Perspectives on Covid-19 Recovery in Africa 283 303 .
Kathryn M. Yount, Laurie James-Hawkins & Hanan F. Abdul Rahim. (2020) The Reproductive Agency Scale (RAS-17): development and validation in a cross-sectional study of pregnant Qatari and non-Qatari Arab Women. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 20:1.
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Abdul-Karim Iddrisu, Francis Kwame Bukari, Kwaku Opoku-Ameyaw, Gabriel Oppong Afriyie & Kassim Tawiah. (2020) Factors That Determine the Likelihood of Giving Birth to the First Child within 10 Months after Marriage. Journal of Pregnancy 2020, pages 1-12.
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David T Doku, Zulfiqar A Bhutta & Subas Neupane. (2020) Associations of women’s empowerment with neonatal, infant and under-5 mortality in low- and /middle-income countries: meta-analysis of individual participant data from 59 countries. BMJ Global Health 5:1, pages e001558.
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Smisha Agarwal, Pooja Sripad, Caroline Johnson, Karen Kirk, Ben Bellows, Joseph Ana, Vince Blaser, Meghan Bruce Kumar, Kathleen Buchholz, Alain Casseus, Nan Chen, Hannah Sarah Faich Dini, Rachel Hoy Deussom, David Jacobstein, Richard Kintu, Nazo Kureshy, Lory Meoli, Lilian Otiso, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Jérôme Pfaffmann Zambruni, Mallika Raghavan, Ryan Schwarz, John Townsend, Brittney Varpilah, William Weiss & Charlotte E. Warren. (2019) A conceptual framework for measuring community health workforce performance within primary health care systems. Human Resources for Health 17:1.
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Kathryn M. Yount, Yuk Fai Cheong, Lauren Maxwell, Jessica Heckert, Elena M. Martinez & Gregory Seymour. (2019) Measurement properties of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. World Development 124, pages 104639.
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Rebecca Jones, Regine Haardörfer, Usha Ramakrishnan, Kathryn M. Yount, Stephanie Miedema & Amy Webb Girard. (2019) Women's empowerment and child nutrition: The role of intrinsic agency. SSM - Population Health 9, pages 100475.
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Carinne Brody, Say Sok, Sovannary Tuot, Marija Pantelic, Enrique Restoy & Siyan Yi. (2019) Do combination HIV prevention programmes result in increased empowerment, inclusion and agency to demand equal rights for marginalised populations in low-income and middle-income countries? A systematic review. BMJ Global Health 4:5, pages e001560.
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Robin A. Richardson, Sam Harper, Lisa M. Bates & Arijit Nandi. (2019) The effect of agency on women's mental distress: A prospective cohort study from rural Rajasthan, India. Social Science & Medicine 233, pages 47-56.
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Stella Babalola, Caitlin Loehr, Olamide Oyenubi, Akinsewa Akiode & Allison Mobley. (2019) Efficacy of a Digital Health Tool on Contraceptive Ideation and Use in Nigeria: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Control Trial. Global Health: Science and Practice 7:2, pages 273-288.
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Laurie James-Hawkins, Eman Shaltout, Aasli Abdi Nur, Catherine Nasrallah, Yara Qutteina, Hanan F. Abdul Rahim, Monique Hennink & Kathryn M. Yount. (2018) Human and economic resources for empowerment and pregnancy-related mental health in the Arab Middle East: a systematic review. Archives of Women's Mental Health 22:1, pages 1-14.
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Yara Qutteina, Catherine Nasrallah, Laurie James-Hawkins, Aasli Abdi Nur, Kathryn M. Yount, Monique Hennink & Hanan F. Abdul Rahim. (2018) Social resources and Arab women’s perinatal mental health: A systematic review. Women and Birth 31:5, pages 386-397.
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Stella Babalola, Joshua O. Akinyemi & Clifford O. Odimegwu. (2018) Changes in demand for children between 2003 and 2013 in Nigeria: Evidence from survey data. Population Horizons 15:1, pages 16-29.
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Robin A. Richardson. (2017) Measuring Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Researchers. Social Indicators Research 137:2, pages 539-557.
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Stella Babalola & Olamide Oyenubi. (2018) Factors explaining the North–South differentials in contraceptive use in Nigeria: A nonlinear decomposition analysis. Demographic Research 38, pages 287-308.
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Ndola Prata, Paula Tavrow & Ushma Upadhyay. (2017) Women’s empowerment related to pregnancy and childbirth: introduction to special issue. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 17:S2.
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Anita Raj & Lotus McDougal. (2017) Leaving no one behind: can the Family Planning Estimation Tool help?. The Lancet Global Health 5:3, pages e242-e243.
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