Abstract

Racial/ethnic differences in unintended pregnancy risk: A multi-level examination of women’s health risk factors

Charvonne Holliday, PhD, MPH, Leah Horton, MSPH, Michele Decker, ScD, Donna Strobino, PhD and Roland Thorpe Jr., PhD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD

APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)

Background: Unintended pregnancy is prevalent and associated with pressing women’s health and rights concerns. Racial/ethnic disparity in unintended pregnancy persists despite a decline in recent years. Objective: To assess racial/ethnic differences in unintended pregnancy risk among women in eight regions throughout Los Angeles County with consideration of individual (contraceptive use, stress), socio-cultural (intimate partner violence), and neighborhood-level (segregation, economic hardship) risk factors. Methods: The Los Angeles Mommy and Baby (LAMB) project is a randomly-stratified population-based surveillance of women with recent births. LAMB captures core components of mother’s prenatal and post-partum experiences like pregnancy intention, violence exposure, and economic hardship in relation to their neighborhoods. We will analyze these data to assess unintended pregnancy risk. Our sample includes a racially/ethnically and geographically diverse sample of women (n=10,250) who participated in LAMB surveys (2010-2012) across Los Angeles County. Results: These analyses are a part of a recently funded, one-year, pilot award. Findings obtained through chi-square and logistic regression analyses will highlight women’s risk of unintended pregnancy given various levels of influence, including potential racial/ethnic differences with regard to their neighborhood environment and other socio-structural risk factors. Discussion: Despite our knowledge of racial/ethnic differences in unintended pregnancy, little is known about the social context that explains these differences. This study will be the first to examine the influence of socio-cultural factors on unintended pregnancy risk using a large number of neighborhood units and within-race comparisons. Findings have implications on the development of culturally specific interventions and policies that address unintended pregnancy in context.

Epidemiology Public health or related research Social and behavioral sciences