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Abstract #154490

Ileana M. Prejbeanu, MD, PhD, Environmental Health Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, str. Petru Rares nr. 2, Craiova, Romania, + 40 351 412 448, ileana.manuela@rdslink.ro, Cornelia Rada, Sociologist, Centre of Anthropological Research, Romanian Academy, Bdul Eroii Sanitari nr. 8, Bucharest, Romania, and Mirela Profir, Family surgery, str. Nicolae Titulescu nr. 44, Craiova, Romania.

Romanian people are still feeling the influence of the aggressive pro birth policy of the communist regime, despite the important political, social and economical changes occurred in the country after 1990. Within the framework of a Romanian Academy Grant, we managed a national study to put into evidence the present characteristics of the sexual-reproductive health of Romanians. We applied a questionnaire with 90 items on 1902 subjects over the age of 15, equally distributed by sex, living in urban areas of the eight traditional historical geographical regions of the country. Data analysis suggests the followings: (1) young people postpone the moments of getting married and having children especially from professional training and financial reasons. A significant natality increase and a positive natural increase seem not to be possible in the next five years (in the 25-34 age group 64.4% of the subjects have no children; about ¼ of the total number of subjects do not wish the second child); (2) age of first sexual intercourse has decreased, from an average of 19.73 years over the age of 50 to 17.01 years in the 15-24 age group; (3) first sexual contact was not protected for 61.5% of the respondents, but the percent differences between the age groups are statistically significant (89.8% over the age of 60, 37.7% at the 15-19 age group); (4) a percentage of 52.9 subjects (most of them in the 25-34 and 35-49 age groups) use contraceptive methods; they prefer condoms, pills or calendar.

Learning Objectives:

• identify factors which influence sexual-reproductive health
• analyze the negative effects of an agressive pro birth policy
• discuss the long-term impact of the reproductive health policy on the population health

Keywords: Reproductive Health, Family Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.