Contraceptive Use among Women at Risk of Unintended Pregnancy: Associations with Socio-Economic and Health Factors U.S. 2010

William D. Mosher, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC

Differences in contraceptive use by race, Hispanic ethnicity, and socio-economic status are large and persistent in the United States. Existing studies largely use demographic and socio-economic variables to describe and explain factors related to those differences. This study uses the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to examine a number of additional variables related to low socio-economic status and women’s health status that may be associated with contraceptive use and contraceptive choice. The sample includes 8,294 women 15-44 at risk of unintended pregnancy. Using cross-tabulations, these nine variables are all strongly associated with contraceptive use. This paper will show these associations and attempt to determine how much these variables add to our understanding of contraceptive use after controlling for some standard demographic predictors used in the existing literature on contraceptive use. Implications for the explanation of contraceptive choice and differentials in unintended fertility will be discussed.