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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jennifer J. Frost, DrPH, The Guttmacher Institute, 120 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005, 831-763-9575, jfrost@guttmacher.org

Objectives: U.S. women rely on a mix of public and private providers for their contraceptive and reproductive health care. We identify gaps in service provision, as well as trends and patterns in the mix of services obtained by different subgroups of women to help policymakers and program planners improve service delivery.

Methods: We use data from the 1995 and 2002 National Surveys of Family Growth to examine trends in and relationships between the types of services obtained by women (contraceptive, STD, pregnancy-related, other reproductive services), sources of care (private doctors/HMOs, Title-X funded clinics or other clinics), sources of payment for services and socioeconomic characteristics of women. Logistic regression is used to test which factors predict use of publicly subsidized clinics and of specific types of services.

Results: In 2002, 42% of all women of reproductive age reported receiving one or more contraceptive services during the prior 12 months, an increase from the 36% reporting such care in 1995. Similar to 1995, one in four women received their contraceptive care from clinics. We will provide detail regarding variation in the mix of services received by women going to clinics versus private providers and will assess how differences in the characteristics of the clientele of each provider type relates to the mix of services provided.

Conclusions: By assessing use of subsidized services and measuring disparities in the types of services obtained from different providers, we expect to be able to draw out implications for policy and programs in this area.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify gaps in contraceptive services provided by private versus public providers.
• Describe trends and patterns in the mix of services obtained by women from different types of providers.
• Discuss possible implications for policy and programs suggested by this research.

Keywords: Contraception, Service Delivery

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered