Contraceptive practices and intentions of Ukrainian women.

OBJECTIVES: This study was undertaken to investigate contraceptive practices and factors behind contraceptive preferences among Ukrainian women attending for abortion or gynecological health check-up.

METHODS: Women attending for abortion (n = 919) and healthy non-pregnant women (n = 297) were studied by an anonymous 192-item self-questionnaire in a hospital-based unmatched case-control design.

RESULTS: The average number of abortions per woman rose with age to 4.6 in the abortion group and 2.4 abortions in the non-pregnant group. In the abortion and non-pregnant groups, no contraceptive use during the past year was reported by 27% and 20% and at the time of conception or during the previous month, by 61% and 51%, respectively. Nevertheless, no intention to use contraception in the future was reported by 15% and 8% of women, respectively. A history of previous childbirth (odds ratio (OR) = 1.8), at least two induced abortions (OR = 1.7) and sexual education obtained from literature (OR = 1.8) were associated with preference to use modern contraceptives. Intention to use no contraception in the future was associated with giving no answer about acceptance of abortion as a birth control method (OR = 5.4), uncertainty whether to use abortion or an intrauterine device in a situation of choice (OR = 1.8), low income (OR = 1.9) and no answer about housing situation (OR = 3.9). Lack of experience with contraception reduced the intention to use any method in the future.

CONCLUSIONS: Better reproductive education/information and economic incentives could contribute to a change from abortion to use of contraception.