Background: Unmet need for family planning points the gap between the women’sreproductive aims and their contraceptive practices. In the developing world, 225 millions ofwomen are having unmet need despite increase in contraceptive use. Maternal andreproductive health still regarded as an important public health concern in the developingcountries and in Myanmar. Though there were many studies performed in the specific statesand regions of Myanmar, the national wide studies related to reproductive health are stillvery few due to data availability.

Aims: The study aims to assess the unmet need for family planning, to explore theassociation between unmet need and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics ofwomen, and to assess the major reasons for not using of contraceptive methods amongwomen with unmet need in Myanmar.

Methods: The study used the cross-sectional data from national representativeDemographic and Health Survey (2015-2016) data of Myanmar. The total currently marriedfecund women of 15 to 49 years of age (n=5195) were used. The likelihood of associationbetween unmet need for family planning and predictor variables was examined by logisticregression models. The association was reported in odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidenceinterval with statistical significance level set at 0.05.

Results: The unmet need for family planning was 18.35%, of which 5.91% for spacing and12.45% for limiting. The adjusted analysis showed unmet need was higher in 45-49 years agegroup (OR=3.47; 95% CI= 1.91-6.31), women with no education (OR=1.94; 95% CI =1.21-3.12), poorest wealth quantile (OR=1.53; 95% CI =1-2.34), and women who did not visit tohealth facility in the last 12 months (OR=1.89; 95% CI =1.3-2.73). The parity of womenshowed protected association to unmet need (OR=0.65; CI= 0.05-0.85). The fear of sideeffects and infrequent sexual activity was found to be major reasons for not using ofcontraceptive among married women.

Conclusion: The study results showed that unmet need for family planning amongcurrently married women still need to be lowered. The fecund women of older age groups,poor and uneducated women should be prioritized to ensure access to family planningservices. Improving the quality of family planning services along with provision of healtheducation and counselling sessions are important. Unmet need among unmarried womenneed to be studied in the future.