News for Your Practice

Use of emergency contraception has more than doubled

Approximately 11% of women have ever used emergency contraception, an increase up from 4.2% in 2002


 

References

The use of emergency contraception has more than doubled in recent years, primarily due to large increases in use by women in their early twenties, according to a February data brief issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Kimberly Daniels, PhD, from the NCHS in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues interviewed more than 12,000 sexually-experienced women in the United States, aged 15 to 44, from 2006 to 2010, to ask about their use of emergency contraception and their use of other forms of birth control.

The researchers found that, overall, about one in nine women (11% or 5.8 million) used emergency contraception between 2006 and 2010, up from 4.2% in 2002. Of these, 59% had used emergency contraception once, and 24% had used it twice. About one in four women (23%) aged 20 to 24 used emergency contraception at some point.

“Among women who had ever used emergency contraception, nearly equal percentages of women, around 50%, reported having used it because of fear of method failure and because of unprotected sex,” the authors write. “Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women and those with less education were more likely to have used emergency contraception because of unprotected sex, compared with women of other characteristics. Older women, non-Hispanic white women, and women with more education more often used emergency contraception because of fear of method failure, compared with women of other characteristics.”

To access NCHS Data Brief No. 112, “Use of Emergency Contraception Among Women Aged 15–44: United States, 2006–2010,” click here.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Recommended Reading

Medicaid's share of state budgets nears 24%
MDedge ObGyn
States spend little tobacco revenue on prevention
MDedge ObGyn
Doctors support bipartisan SGR repeal bill
MDedge ObGyn
Medicaid expansion, Medicare reform: The Policy & Practice Podcast
MDedge ObGyn
VIDEO: Happy patients, happy physician practice
MDedge ObGyn
IOM report addresses global problem of poor-quality drugs
MDedge ObGyn
SGR fix coming soon? The Policy & Practice Podcast
MDedge ObGyn
Cancer incidence and mortality hit blacks hardest
MDedge ObGyn
Choosing Wisely: More tests questioned in second round
MDedge ObGyn
Meta-analysis bolsters strength of tuberculosis assay
MDedge ObGyn