Sources of prescription contraceptives and subsequent pregnancy among young women
Zelnik, M.; Koenig, M.A.; Kim, Y.J.
Family Planning Perspectives 16(1): 6-13
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-7354 PMID: 6714381 DOI: 10.2307/2135117Document Number: 400506
For more than 4 in 10 teenage women in the US who first obtained a prescription contraceptive from a private doctor or family planning clinic prior to pregnancy, marriage or interview in 1979, that method was the first they had ever used. Whites were over 2 times more likely to have previously used a nonprescription method than were blacks. Blacks, on the other hand, were 2 times more likely than whites to have been virgins before first using a prescription method. Slightly more than 1/2 of all young women who used a prescription method first obtained it from a family planning clinic, and the remainder got it from a private physician. Blacks were much more likely to have gone to a clinic than were whites. 9 in 10 of those who obtained a prescription method chose the pill. Of all who had been sexually active before ever using a prescription method, about 8 out of 10 whites, but only about 5 in 10 blacks, had previously used a nonprescription method. Overall, there was an interval of about 1 year between 1st intercourse and the time the young women first got a prescription method. 3/4s of the young women said that they went to a doctor or clinic mainly to get a contraceptive prescription. 6 out of 10 reported that their main reason for choosing the method they did was the belief that it was the most effective. 13% of the young women had a premarital pregnancy following their 1st use of a prescription method. When exposure to risk of pregnancy was controlled for through use of life-table procedures, it was determined that 24 months after first obtaining the method, 24% of clinic patients, compared with 7% of those who went to a private physician, had had a premarital pregnancy. The main factors determining which source the young women chose were race and, for blacks, age at 1st use of a prescription method. The major factors in decreasing the risk of pregnancy are having used a nonprescription method consistently prior to 1st use of a prescription method, race and status.