Despite its central importance to global family planning, the “unmet need for contraception” metric is frequently misinterpreted. Often conflated with a lack of access, misinterpretation of what unmet need means and how it is measured has important implications for family planning programs. We review previous examinations of unmet need, with a focus on the roles of access and demand for contraception, as well as the role of population control in shaping the indicator's priorities. We suggest that disaggregating unmet need into “demand-side unmet need” (stemming from lack of demand) and “supply-side unmet need” (stemming from lack of access) could allow current data to be leveraged into a more person-centered understanding of contraceptive need. We use Demographic and Health Survey data from seven sub-Saharan African countries to generate a proof-of-concept, dividing women into unmet need categories based on reason for contraceptive nonuse. We perform sensitivity analyses with varying conceptions of access and disaggregate by education and marital status. We find that demand-side unmet need far exceeds supply-side unmet need in all scenarios. Focusing on supply-side rather than overall unmet need is an imperfect but productive step toward person-centered measurement, while more sweeping changes to family planning measurement are still required.

中文翻译：

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供应方与需求方未满足的需求：对计划生育计划的影响

尽管它对全球计划生育至关重要，但“未满足的避孕需求”指标经常被误解。通常与缺乏机会混为一谈，对未满足需求的含义及其衡量方式的误解对计划生育计划具有重要影响。我们回顾了以前对未满足需求的检查，重点是避孕的可及性和需求的作用，以及人口控制在塑造指标优先级方面的作用。我们建议将未满足的需求分解为“需求方未满足的需求”（源于需求不足）和“供应方未满足的需求”（源于缺乏访问），可以利用当前数据获得更以人为本的理解避孕需要。我们使用来自七个撒哈拉以南非洲国家的人口和健康调查数据来生成概念验证，根据不使用避孕药具的原因将妇女分为未满足的需求类别。我们对不同的访问概念进行敏感性分析，并按教育和婚姻状况进行分类。我们发现，在所有情况下，需求方未满足的需求都远远超过供应方未满足的需求。关注供应方而不是整体未满足的需求是朝着以人为本的衡量迈出的不完美但富有成效的一步，同时仍然需要对计划生育衡量进行更彻底的改变。我们发现，在所有情况下，需求方未满足的需求都远远超过供应方未满足的需求。关注供应方而不是整体未满足的需求是朝着以人为本的衡量迈出的不完美但富有成效的一步，同时仍然需要对计划生育衡量进行更彻底的改变。我们发现，在所有情况下，需求方未满足的需求都远远超过供应方未满足的需求。关注供应方而不是整体未满足的需求是朝着以人为本的衡量迈出的不完美但富有成效的一步，同时仍然需要对计划生育衡量进行更彻底的改变。