Measuring the Extent of Abortion Underreporting in the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth

Fu, Haishan; Darroch, Jacqueline E.; Henshaw, Stanley K.; Kolb, Elizabeth

doi:10.2307/2991627

Cited by 181 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

142

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Registries are less biased than population-based interviews, where it is usual to find a certain amount of recall bias 16 as well as under declaration of abortion 33 (as women may be ashamed to report an abortion when interviewed), which in turn depends on socioeconomic factors. 34 However, the information available in registries is more limited and therefore some potentially influential variables 17,35 in our study (such as parity or woman's income) could not be obtained.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Decision

et al. 2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pregnancy planning allows women to better control their life trajectory and contributes to the future child's health and development. Many studies that have analyzed socioeconomic inequalities in unintended pregnancy only took into account those pregnancies ending in births. Few of them that analyzed unintended pregnancy, including both induced abortion and births, and its socioeconomic determinants, concluded that unintended pregnancy is more frequent in young, poor, or unmarried women. These inequalities have been poorly studied in Europe, especially in the southern European context. The aim of the present study is to describe socioeconomic inequalities in unintended pregnancy and in abortion decision in Barcelona, Spain. The major findings are that unintended pregnancies accounted for 41% of total pregnancy and of these, 60% ended in abortion. From all pregnancies, the proportion of induced abortion reached 25.6%. Compared to women with university studies, those with primary education uncompleted had more unintended pregnancies (OR=7.22). When facing an unintended pregnancy, women of lower socioeconomic position are more likely to choose induced abortion, although this is not the case among young or single women. This study reveals deep socioeconomic inequalities in unintended pregnancies and abortion decision in Barcelona, Spain, where the birth rate is very low and the abortion rate is rising. Women in low socioeconomic positions have many more unintended pregnancies than better educated women. Except for young or single women, the lower the socioeconomic position, the higher the proportion of women who choose an induced abortion when facing an unintended pregnancy.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Decision

et al. 2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies in the USA show that fewer than one half of induced abortions performed in the preceding five years were reported in interviews, 17,20,23,24 while just over 50%, admitted induced abortion in a self-report procedure (audio-computer assisted). 23 Although sensitive interviewing 25 may render somewhat better results, an augmenting factor of two is applied when estimating unsafe abortion from surveys, that is, assuming that one in two women will admit to an abortion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsafe abortion in 2008: global and regional levels and trends

Shah¹,

Åhman

2010

Reproductive Health Matters

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…For instance, one study compared survey reports about abortion from respondents to the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) with data from abortion clinics (Fu, Darroch, Henshaw, & Kolb, 1998). The NSFG reports were from a national sample of women between the ages of 15 and 44.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitive questions in surveys.

Tourangeau¹,

Yan²

2007

Psychological Bulletin

2,224

1,554

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychologists have worried about the distortions introduced into standardized personality measures by social desirability bias. Survey researchers have had similar concerns about the accuracy of survey reports about such topics as illicit drug use, abortion, and sexual behavior. The article reviews the research done by survey methodologists on reporting errors in surveys on sensitive topics, noting parallels and differences from the psychological literature on social desirability. The findings from the survey studies suggest that misreporting about sensitive topics is quite common and that it is largely situational. The extent of misreporting depends on whether the respondent has anything embarrassing to report and on design features of the survey. The survey evidence also indicates that misreporting on sensitive topics is a more or less motivated process in which respondents edit the information they report to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of an interviewer or to avoid repercussions from third parties.

show abstract

Measuring the Extent of Abortion Underreporting in the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth

Abstract: The usefulness of the NSFG remains extremely limited for analyses involving unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Cited by 181 publications

References 8 publications

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Decision

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Decision

Unsafe abortion in 2008: global and regional levels and trends

Sensitive questions in surveys.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About