Women's autonomy, education and contraception use in Pakistan: a national study.

Background: It has been proposed that the autonomy of women is one of the mechanisms of how education influences contraceptive use in developing countries. We tested this hypothesis in a national sample of women in Pakistan.

Methods: We used the 2000 Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey, which interviewed a national sample of ever married women aged 15-49 years (n = 6579).