Source of care and variation in long-acting reversible contraception use.

OBJECTIVE: To examine variation in long acting reversible contraception (LARC) use by source of birth control services.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Not applicable.

PATIENT(S): Sexually active women who received contraceptive services in the past 12 months, who were neither pregnant nor trying to become pregnant and who were not sterilized and nor were their partners sterilized.

INTERVENTION(S): Three multinomial logistic regression models assessed the relationship between source of services and LARC use, controlling for covariates. The odds of LARC use were compared with LARC nonuse, high-efficacy use, and low-efficacy use.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Reported LARC method use.

RESULT(S): There was no statistically significant difference in LARC use between women receiving services from community or public health clinics and women receiving services from private clinics. Women receiving care at a family-planning clinics had lower odds of LARC use versus LARC nonuse (odds ratio [OR] = 0.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10-0.74), versus high-efficacy method use (OR = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.11-0.88) and versus low-efficacy method use (OR = 0.13; 95% CI, 0.02-0.87) compared with those receiving services at private clinics.

CONCLUSION(S): Women receiving care from family-planning clinics had lower odds of LARC use compared with those receiving care from a private doctor's office or health maintenance organization facility.