ArticleReproductive health2023
Exploring the effects of COVID-19 on family planning: results from a qualitative study in rural Uganda following COVID-19 lockdown.
Article in Reproductive health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05743309 (Evaluation of Telemedicine Practices for Contraceptive Counseling Given to Pregnant Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Evaluation of Telemedicine Practices for Contraceptive Counseling Given to Pregnant Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of infectious disease outbreaks and violence against women and girls: changes in magnitude, mechanisms and lessons for the future.BMJ global health · 2026Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to accessing and utilising sexual and reproductive health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- The dynamics of family planning and abortion services during COVID-19: perspectives from healthcare providers and clients in Burkina Faso.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on access to family planning and HIV services among women in Lilongwe, Malawi.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Access to contraceptive services during the COVID-19 pandemic: clients' perspective at primary health care level from India, Nigeria and Tanzania.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- Exploring the Role of Gender in the Public Health Supply Chain Workforce in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Global health, science and practice · 2025Article
- "COVID-19 affected me greatly (sigh), imagine I'm being called a mother and yet I'm also a child": the effect of COVID-19 on fertility management practices among women in Nairobi and Kisumu cities, Kenya.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Exploring district implementation of national guidelines and maintenance of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- "Resilience amidst challenges": Healthcare users' experiences of access and utilisation of primary healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic in southwestern Uganda.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Scoping review of qualitative studies on family planning in Uganda.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternofetal Outcome in Pregnant Women with Severe Anemia.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social MedicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has likely affected the already high unmet need for family planning in low- and middle-income countries. This qualitative study used Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Service Use as a theoretical framework to explore the possible ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic, including the impact of a 3-month government mandated lockdown, might affect family planning outcomes in rural Uganda. A secondary aim was to elicit recommendations to improve family planning service delivery in the context of COVID-19.
methodsBetween June and October 2020, we conducted four focus group discussions with men and women separately (N = 26) who had an unmet need for family planning, and 15 key-informant interviews with community leaders and family planning stakeholders. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
resultsWe identified a significant disruption to the delivery of family planning services due to COVID-19, with potential negative effects on contraceptive use and risk for unintended pregnancy. COVID-19 had a negative effect on individual enabling factors such as family income, affecting service access, and on community enabling factors, such as transportation barriers and the disruption of community-based family planning delivery through village health teams and mobile clinics. Participants felt COVID-19 lockdown restrictions exacerbated existing contextual predisposing factors related to poverty and gender inequity, such as intimate partner violence and power inequities that diminish women's ability to refuse sex with their husband and their autonomy to use contraceptives. Recommendations to improve family planning service delivery in the context of COVID-19 centered on emergency preparedness, strengthening community health systems, and creating new ways to safely deliver contractive methods directly to communities during future COVID-19 lockdowns.
conclusionsThis study highlights the consequences of COVID-19 lockdown on family planning distribution, as well as the exacerbation of gender inequities that limit women's autonomy in pregnancy prevention measures. To improve family planning service uptake in the context of COVID-19, there is a need to strengthen emergency preparedness and response, utilize community structures for contraceptive delivery, and address the underlying gender inequities that affect care seeking and service utilization.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.