Understanding how adult women's reproductive health information networks are related to contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors

Relatively little is known about young adult women's information seeking related to contraceptives and contraceptive use. Therefore, it is important to gain an understanding of women's reproductive health information seeking (i.e, their network structure) and how this impacts knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. A telephone survey of 18-30 year old women (N = 696) was conducted to investigate women's sexual and reproductive health, including what factors influenced women's contraceptive intentions and who they have talked to about contraceptives. T-tests and chi-square tests were used to ascertain whether differences exist between different network structures. Women's average reproductive health information network included 2.82 different types of individuals (SD=1.25). Women who were between the ages of 18 and 24, not married, had no children, and had health care coverage had larger reproductive health information networks. Women with some type of reproductive health information network had more knowledge about contraceptives compared to women with no network and women with some type of network displayed more positive attitudes related to contraceptives. This research provides a description of young adult women's reproductive health networks and begins to illustrate the link between young adult women's reproductive health networks and their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to contraceptives. The findings reflect that women with different types of networks have varying levels of contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and intentions and women's networks may vary based on life stage or personal characteristics. Public health practitioners should take into account network structure when designing future interventions aimed at improving contraceptive use.