Premium
Young Women's Contraceptive Decision Making: Do Preferences for Contraceptive Attributes Align with Method Choice?
Author(s) -
Marshall Cassondra,
Guendelman Sylvia,
Mauldon Jane,
NuruJeter Amani
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
perspectives on sexual and reproductive health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.818
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1931-2393
pISSN - 1538-6341
DOI - 10.1363/48e10116
Subject(s) - medicine , family planning , context (archaeology) , pregnancy , logistic regression , population , quarter (canadian coin) , odds , family medicine , gynecology , odds ratio , demography , obstetrics , research methodology , environmental health , history , paleontology , genetics , archaeology , pathology , sociology , biology
ABSTRACT CONTEXT Understanding how women's preferences for certain attributes of contraceptive methods relate to their method choice can inform the content of contraceptive counseling. METHODS Data from 715 women aged 18–29 who had ever used contraceptives were drawn from the 2009 National Survey of Reproductive and Contraceptive Knowledge. Chi‐square tests and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine how women's preferences for specific contraceptive attributes were related to their social and demographic characteristics and their current contraceptive choice. RESULTS The majority of women considered it extremely important for a method to be very effective at preventing pregnancy (79%) and to be effective at preventing HIV and STDs (67%); fewer than one‐quarter felt similarly about a method's being hormone‐free (22%). Women who felt it was quite or extremely important for a method to be very effective at preventing pregnancy were not more likely to use the most effective methods than were women who considered this attribute not at all or only slightly important. Women who considered it quite or extremely important for a method to be hormone‐free were less likely than others to use hormonal methods (odds ratio, 0.4), and women who considered STD protection quite or extremely important had elevated odds of relying on condoms alone, rather than on an effective contraceptive method alone (3.6). CONCLUSIONS Most women desire a very effective method for pregnancy prevention, but it is unclear how this translates to their contraceptive use. The associations between women's preferred contraceptive attributes and method choice warrant further attention.