Declines in Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 2008–2011
2016/03/03 by Lawrence B. Finer, Mia R. Zolna · 44 citations
Medicine · Health Professions · #Reproductive Health and Contraception #Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health #Ectopic Pregnancy Diagnosis and Management
paper · pdf · doi:10.1056/nejmsa1506575
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States increased slightly between 2001 and 2008 and is higher than that in many other industrialized countries. National trends have not been reported since 2008. METHODS: We calculated rates of pregnancy for the years 2008 and 2011 according to women's and girls' pregnancy intentions and the outcomes of those pregnancies. We obtained data on pregnancy intentions from the National Survey of Family Growth and a national survey of patients who had abortions, data on births from the National Center for Health Statistics, and data on induced abortions from a national census of abortion providers; the number of miscarriages was estimated using data from the National Survey of Family Growth. RESULTS: Less than half (45%) of pregnancies were unintended in 2011, as compared with 51% in 2008. The rate of unintended pregnancy among women and girls 15 to 44 years of age declined by 18%, from 54 per 1000 in 2008 to 45 per 1000 in 2011. Rates of unintended pregnancy among those who were below the federal poverty level or cohabiting were two to three times the national average. Across population subgroups, disparities in the rates of unintended pregnancy persisted but narrowed between 2008 and 2011; the incidence of unintended pregnancy declined by more than 25% among girls who were 15 to 17 years of age, women who were cohabiting, those whose incomes were between 100% and 199% of the federal poverty level, those who did not have a high school education, and Hispanics. The percentage of unintended pregnancies that ended in abortion remained stable during the period studied (40% in 2008 and 42% in 2011). Among women and girls 15 to 44 years of age, the rate of unintended pregnancies that ended in birth declined from 27 per 1000 in 2008 to 22 per 1000 in 2011. CONCLUSIONS: After a previous period of minimal change, the rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States declined substantially between 2008 and 2011, but unintended pregnancies remained most common among women and girls who were poor and those who were cohabiting. (Funded by the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.).
Cited by
- Trends and disparities in violence-related injury morbidity among pregnant and postpartum individuals
- Mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathway sensitize zebrafish and humans to ethanol-induced jaw malformations
- Students' Perceptions of Black-Latino Conflicts in Public Schools
- Expanding College Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs to Include Family Building
- Changes in Adolescent Birth Rates within Appalachian Subregions and Non-Appalachian Counties in the United States, 2012–2018
- Estimating the Prevalence of United States Women with Alcohol-exposed Pregnancies and Births
- Racial/Ethnic Differences in Relationships Between Pregnancy Intentions and Maternal Outcomes
- The impact of hostile abortion legislation on the United States maternal mortality crisis: a call for increased abortion education
- Interactions between the bone morphogenetic protein and the planar cell polarity pathways lead to distinctive ethanol‐induced facial defects
- What women want from local primary care services for unintended pregnancy in rural Australia: a qualitative study from rural New South Wales
- Exploring longitudinal associations between social determinants of health during adolescence and self-reported contraceptive use in young adulthood in the United States
- The Effect of an Entertainment-Education Intervention on Reproductive Health of Young Women of Color
- Under (implicit) pressure: young Black and Latina women's perceptions of contraceptive care
- Patients' experiences with South Carolina's immediate postpartum Long-acting reversible contraception Medicaid policy
- Popular contraception videos on TikTok: An assessment of content topics
- Impact of Reproductive Health Education Seminars on College Students’ Contraception and Safe Sex Knowledge and Behaviors
- More Than a Destination: Contraceptive Decision Making as a Journey
- The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights and Adverse Birth Outcomes
- Impact of State-Level Reproductive Health Legislation on Access to and Use of Reproductive Health Services and Reproductive Health Outcomes: A Systematic Scoping Review in the Affordable Care Act Era
- Memorable Messages about Pregnancy and Abortion from the Perspective of College-Enrolled Emerging Adults
- Rethinking the Pregnancy Planning Paradigm: Unintended Conceptions or Unrepresentative Concepts? [europepmc]
- Understanding the Decline in Adolescent Fertility in the United States, 2007-2012. [europepmc]
- Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014. [europepmc]
- Contraceptive method use in the United States: trends and characteristics between 2008, 2012 and 2014. [europepmc]
- Trends in Risk of Pregnancy Loss Among US Women, 1990-2011. [europepmc]
- Disparities and change over time in distance women would need to travel to have an abortion in the USA: a spatial analysis. [europepmc]
- Reducing Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality. [europepmc]
- Disparities in Preconception Health Indicators - Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2013-2015, and Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, 2013-2014. [europepmc]
- Public Health Implications of Very Preterm Birth. [europepmc]
- 2015 Department of Defense Health Related Behaviors Survey (HRBS). [europepmc]
- Association of Short Interpregnancy Interval With Pregnancy Outcomes According to Maternal Age. [europepmc]
- Psychometric Evaluation of an Instrument to Measure Prospective Pregnancy Preferences: The Desire to Avoid Pregnancy Scale. [europepmc]
- Challenging unintended pregnancy as an indicator of reproductive autonomy. [europepmc]
- Hypertension in pregnancy: Pathophysiology and treatment. [europepmc]
- Management of Preexisting Diabetes in Pregnancy: A Review. [europepmc]
- Clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. [europepmc]
- Prevalence and determinants of unintended pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: A multi-country analysis of demographic and health surveys. [europepmc]
- Specific birth defects in pregnancies of women with diabetes: National Birth Defects Prevention Study, 1997-2011. [europepmc]
- Long-acting reversible contraception by effervescent microneedle patch. [europepmc]
- Modeling alcohol-induced neurotoxicity using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived three-dimensional cerebral organoids. [europepmc]
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's mental health. [europepmc]
- Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Reproductive Health Services and Outcomes, 2020. [europepmc]
- Folic Acid and the Prevention of Birth Defects: 30 Years of Opportunity and Controversies. [europepmc]
- Associations of Unintended Pregnancy With Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. [europepmc]
- Optimizing Prepregnancy Cardiovascular Health to Improve Outcomes in Pregnant and Postpartum Individuals and Offspring: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. [europepmc]
Related