The Measurement and Meaning of Unintended Pregnancy

Santelli, John; Rochat, Roger W.; Hatfield-Timajchy, Kendra; Gilbert, Brenda Colley; Curtis, Kathryn M.; Cabral, Rebecca J.; Hirsch, Jennifer S.; Schieve, Laura A.

doi:10.1363/3509403

Cited by 568 publications

(316 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Even when they use contraceptives, they experience higher failure rates, suggesting that, because of gender inequality, these women frequently do not even control the circumstances in which they have intercourse, much less the decision regarding contraceptive use. 21 The increase in induced abortion in younger women could also reflect an increase in sexual activity, younger age of sexual initiation, and a higher number of sexual partners. 22 Moreover, among younger women, the decision to have an induced abortion could be strongly influenced by a wish to continue their studies or start working, explaining why they more often choose to terminate their pregnancy in an abortion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in Inequalities in Induced Abortion According to Educational Level among Urban Women

et al. 2010

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This study aims to describe trends in inequalities by women's socioeconomic position and age in induced abortion in Barcelona (Spain) over 1992-1996 and 2000-2004. Induced abortions occurring in residents in Barcelona aged 20 and 44 years in the study period are included. Variables are age, educational level, and time periods. Induced abortion rates per 1,000 women and absolute differences for educational level, age, and time period are calculated. Poisson regression models are fitted to obtain the relative risk (RR) for trends. Induced abortion rates increased from 10.1 to 14.6 per 1,000 women aged 20-44 (RR=1.44; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.41-1.47) between 1992-1996 and 2000-2004. The abortion rate was highest among women aged 20-24 and 25-34 and changed little among women aged 35-44. Among women aged 20-24 and 25-34, those with a primary education or less had higher rates of induced abortion in the second period. Induced abortion rates also grew in those women with secondary education. In the 35-44 age group, the induced abortion rate declined among women with a secondary education (RR=0.66; 95% CI 0.60-0.73) and slightly among those with a greater level of education. Induced abortion is rising most among women in poor socioeconomic positions. This study reveals deep inequalities in induced abortion in Barcelona, Spain. The trends identified in this study suggest that policy efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies are failing in Spain. Our study fills an important gap in literature on recent trends in Southern Europe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in Inequalities in Induced Abortion According to Educational Level among Urban Women

et al. 2010

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“…First, there is considerable debate about the appropriateness of survey categories in capturing the nuances of pregnancy intention and whether interpretation of these categories varies across cultural and socioeconomic groups. 13,14 We have adhered to the conventional definition of unintended pregnancy and used the NSFG database, which is the primary source of data on unintended pregnancy in the US. While it is certainly possible that women mis-classify their pregnancy intentions, especially in retrospect, our sensitivity analyses examining the effect of unwanted pregnancy, a less ambiguous construct, were very similar to those for unintended pregnancy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women who had ever been pregnant were asked to characterize each pregnancy as either "unwanted," occurring at the "right time," "overdue," "too soon," or that they "didn't care" or "didn't know." Consistent with the conventional definition of unintended pregnancy, 13 women reporting pregnancies that were either "unwanted" or occurred "too soon" were considered to have a history of unintended pregnancy. Because we were interested in understanding the relationship between unintended pregnancy and subsequent tubal sterilization decisions, we included only pregnancies that occurred prior to tubal sterilization in those women who had the procedure.…”

Section: Study Outcome and Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unintended Pregnancy Influences Racial Disparity in Tubal Sterilization Rates

Borrero

Moore

et al. 2009

J GEN INTERN MED

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BACKGROUND: Minority women are more likely than white women to choose tubal sterilization as a contraceptive method. Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy may help explain observed racial/ethnic differences in sterilization, but this association has not been investigated. OBJECTIVE:To examine the associations among race/ ethnicity, unintended pregnancy, and tubal sterilization. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS:Cross-sectional analysis of data from a nationally representative sample of women aged 15-44 years [65.7% white, 14.8% Hispanic, and 13.9% African American (AA)] who participated in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. MAIN MEASURES:Race/ethnicity, history of unintended pregnancy, and tubal sterilization. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the effect of race/ ethnicity on unintended pregnancy while adjusting for socio-demographic variables. A series of logistic regression models was then used to examine the role of unintended pregnancy as a confounder for the relationship between race/ethnicity and sterilization.KEY RESULTS: Overall, 40% of white, 48% of Hispanic, and 59% of AA women reported a history of unintended pregnancy. After adjusting for socio-demographic variables, AA women were more likely (OR: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.6-2.4) and Hispanic women as likely (OR: 1.0; 95% CI: 0.80-1.2) as white women to report unintended pregnancy. Sterilization was reported by 29% of women who had ever had an unintended pregnancy compared to 7% of women who reported never having an unintended pregnancy. In unadjusted analysis, AA and Hispanic women had significantly higher odds of undergoing sterilization (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.3-1.9 and OR: 1.4; 95% CI: 1.2-1.7, respectively). After adjusting for unintended pregnancy, this relationship was attenuated and no longer significant (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.95-1.4for AA women and OR: 1.3; 95% CI: 1.0-1.6 for Hispanic women).CONCLUSION: Minority women, who more frequently experience unintended pregnancy, may choose tubal sterilization in response to prior experiences with an unintended pregnancy.KEY WORDS: unintended pregnancy; minority women; tubal sterilization.

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“…occurred earlier than desired) at the time of conception is referred to as an unintended pregnancy (Abma et al, 1997). Unintended pregnancies harm women and their families through consequences like unsafe abortion, delayed prenatal care, poor maternal mental health, reduced mother-child relationship quality, poor developmental outcomes for children, physical abuse and violence against women, increased risk of low birth weight as well as increased maternal morbidity and mortality (Santelli et al, 2003;Singh et al, 2010; US Department of Health and Human Services & Health Resources and Services Administration, 2011). Beyond the direct health consequences, unintended pregnancies also contribute to unwanted population growth, which consequently compromises provision of adequate social services (Bradley et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Doing this undermines the importance that unwanted and mistimed pregnancies have in their own right and also misses exploration of the conditions under which they occur. Since these two aspects differ from each other in many regards, their separate analysis is more likely to better reflect women's pregnancy intentions and thus be more useful in understanding the overall impact of unintended pregnancy (Santelli et al, 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing Mistimed and Unwanted Pregnancies Among Nepali Women

2015

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Summary. This paper assesses the factors influencing mistimed and unwanted pregnancies in Nepal separately using data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. Women who had given birth within the five years before the survey were interviewed about the intendedness of their last pregnancy. The data were analysed with a chi-squared test, followed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Among the total 5391 participants, 11.29% and 13.13% reported their last pregnancy as mistimed and unwanted respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that women from the hill region were more likely to report mistimed pregnancy, while women from the Western and Far-Western development regions were less likely to report mistimed pregnancy. Education status was positively correlated with the reporting of mistimed pregnancy. Women involved in agriculture, with full autonomy on household decision, with some exposure to mass media, belonging to higher age group and having third or higher parity were less likely to report mistimed pregnancy. Similarly, women from the Western development region had relatively higher odds of reporting unwanted pregnancy. Women with husbands involved in a paid job had lower odds of unwanted pregnancy. Women's autonomy was also positively correlated with unwanted pregnancy. Women with the intention to use contraceptive had lower odds of unwanted pregnancy. Interventions targeting the factors identified by this study could be useful in reduction of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies among Nepali women.

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The Measurement and Meaning of Unintended Pregnancy

Cited by 568 publications

References 54 publications

Trends in Inequalities in Induced Abortion According to Educational Level among Urban Women

Trends in Inequalities in Induced Abortion According to Educational Level among Urban Women

Unintended Pregnancy Influences Racial Disparity in Tubal Sterilization Rates

Factors Influencing Mistimed and Unwanted Pregnancies Among Nepali Women

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