AccScience Publishing / IJPS / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijps.365
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REVIEW

COVID-19 and access to family planning among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

Sunday A. Adedini1,2* Hassan Ogunwemimo3 Clifford O. Odimegwu2
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1 Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti, Nigeria
2 Demography and Population Studies Programme, Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
3 Centre for Data Science and Health Metrics, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Ondo, Nigeria
IJPS 2024, 10(1), 5–20; https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.365
Submitted: 19 September 2022 | Accepted: 1 December 2023 | Published: 21 December 2023
© 2023 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

This study examined the impact of COVID-19 on access to family planning for women of reproductive age (defined as ages 15 – 49) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Employing a scoping review methodology, we retrieved relevant literature spanning the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 eras, drawing information from major electronic databases. Inclusion criteria required studies addressing family planning and sexual and reproductive health among women of reproductive age in SSA. This review encompassed 36 published studies, with two-thirds of these originating from the pre-COVID-19 period. The majority of the studies utilized quantitative methodology (89%). While some evidence corroborates our hypothesis regarding the impact of COVID-19 on family planning services in SSA, initial findings somewhat downplayed this impact. However, a sensitivity bias test revealed a discernible effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s access to family planning services. The results of this review hold significance for policymakers and program implementers striving to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on access to family planning services among women in SSA.

Keywords
Family planning
Access to family planning
COVID-19
Women
Scoping review
Sub-Saharan Africa
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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