Are LARC Users Less Likely to Use Condoms? An Analysis of U.S. Women Initiating LARC in 2008-2018.

INTRODUCTION: Public health professionals have raised concern that increased use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) could raise women's risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), because LARC's superior pregnancy protection may decrease women's motivation to use a barrier method for supplemental pregnancy prevention. This study uses population-based data to examine whether condom use is lower, particularly among young women who are at increased STI risk, after initiating LARC versus moderately effective methods. METHODS: With the 2011-2019 data files of the National Survey of Family Growth, we examine the percent of sexually active months with condom use in the year after LARC or moderately effective method initiation for a nationally representative sample of 2,018 women aged 15-44 years. Multinomial logistic models regressed condom use on method type and age group, as well as their interaction, while adjusting for key confounders. RESULTS: The unadjusted likelihood of any condom use is substantially lower among women who initiated LARC versus moderately effective methods (12% vs. 37%), and this difference is greater among younger versus older women. After accounting for differences in women's reproductive and sociodemographic profiles, however, a statistically significant difference in condom use by method initiated remains only for those aged 20-34 years. CONCLUSIONS: Crude estimates suggest that condom use is lower after initiating LARC versus moderately effective methods, especially among young women. After accounting for the confounding effects of LARC users' distinct profiles-particularly in terms of parity and teenage childbearing-the difference is decreased overall and no longer significant for adolescent women. Overall results indicate a need for new STI prevention strategies and policies that emphasize the importance of dual prevention for LARC users at risk of STIs.

Women's Use of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception for Birth Timing and Birth Stopping.

The use of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods-intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants-has recently expanded rapidly in the United States, and these methods together approach the contraceptive pill in current prevalence. Research on LARCs has analyzed their use to reduce unintended pregnancies but not their use to enable intended pregnancies. Knowledge of both is necessary to understand LARCs' potential impacts on the reproductive life courses of U.S. women. We combine data from two nationally representative surveys to estimate women's likelihood and timing of subsequent reproductive events, including births resulting from an intended pregnancy up to nine years after discontinuing LARC use. We estimate that 62% of women will give birth, and 45% will give birth from an intended pregnancy. Additionally, 18% will have a new LARC inserted, and 13% will transition to sterilization. Most of these reproductive events occur within two years after discontinuing LARC use. Births from an intended pregnancy are especially common when no intervening switch to another contraceptive method occurs. We infer that women's motives for using LARC are varied but include the desire to postpone a birth, to postpone a decision about whether to have a(nother) birth, and to transition definitively to the completion of childbearing.

Is the Gender Gap in Overdose Deaths (Still) Decreasing? An Examination of Opioid Deaths in Delaware, 2013-2017.

OBJECTIVE: Drug overdoses among men have historically outnumbered those among women by a large margin. Yet, U.S. research on the first wave of the opioid epidemic involving prescription opioids has found women to be at increased risk. The current study considers if the narrowing gender gap in overdose deaths, as observed during the first wave, has continued into the most recent third wave, dominated by synthetic opioid deaths. This requires consideration of interactions between gender, age, and type of drug implicated. METHOD: Drawing on 2013-2017 Delaware toxicology reports for a total of 890 overdose deaths involving opioids, we distinguished between four gender/age groups--women 15-44, women 45-64, men 15-44, and men 45-64--to calculate crude death rates, male-to-female death rate ratios, and younger-to-older death rate ratios by type of opioid. RESULTS: Opioid overdose death rates during the third wave increased among both men (+102%) and women (+46%), but the larger increase among men resulted in an increase in the male-to-female death rate ratio (from 1.9 to 2.6). This trend was driven by the growing contribution of fentanyl (from 16% to 76%) and heroin overdose deaths (from 27% to 50%) compared with other opioid overdose deaths, which disproportionately affected men and younger individuals. Higher male-to-female death rate ratios were observed among older, compared with younger, individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Overdose deaths seem to have returned to a historically familiar pattern of dominance by younger males. Our findings suggest the gender-age distribution in deaths to specific opioid types must be considered for effective intervention.

Understanding Sterilization Regret in the United States: The Role of Relationship Context.

Although one fourth of sterilized reproductive-aged women in the U.S. express a desire to have their sterilization procedures reversed, the pathways leading to sterilization regret remain insufficiently understood. Particularly little is known about how cohabitation affects the likelihood of sterilization regret. This study used data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth to investigate how relationship context shapes women's risk of sterilization regret. Our findings point to higher levels of regret among women who were cohabiting, rather than married or single at the time of sterilization. Experiencing post-sterilization union dissolution or post-sterilization union formation was also associated with an elevated risk of regret. Together, post-sterilization union instability and selected background characteristics largely explained elevated levels of regret observed among women who were cohabiting at the time of sterilization. An association between regret and post-sterilization union instability persisted, however, even when socioeconomic and reproductive background factors were controlled.

Desire for Sterilization Reversal Among U.S. Females: Increasing Inequalities by Educational Level.

CONTEXT: For decades, high reliance on female sterilization in the United States has been accompanied by a high level of desire for sterilization reversal, and less-educated women have been more likely than better educated women to use the method and desire a reversal. Little is known about how levels of and educational differentials in such desire have changed in recent decades. METHODS: Data from 4,147 women who reported being sterile from a tubal sterilization in the 1995, 2002 and 2006-2010 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth were analyzed using chi-square and Wald tests and binary logistic regression analyses. Predicted probabilities were calculated to determine the likelihood of desire for procedure reversal by wave and educational level. RESULTS: The prevalence of desire for sterilization reversal rose by 41%, from 18% in 1995 to 23% in 2002 and 25% in 2006-2010. Overall, women with a bachelor's degree were less likely than those who had not finished high school to desire a reversal (odds ratio, 0.2), and this educational differential was larger in 2006-2010 than in earlier waves. Predicted probabilities indicate that 9% of sterilized women with less than a high school education and 8% of those with a bachelor's degree expressed a desire for procedure reversal in 1995, as did 15% and 3%, respectively, in 2006-2010. CONCLUSION: Future research should consider how insurance coverage of all methods under the Affordable Care Act may affect use of sterilization and desire for reversal.

Contraceptive Sterilization: Introducing A Couple Perspective to Examine Sociodemographic Differences in Use.

CONTEXT: Most studies of contraceptive use have relied solely on the woman's perspective, but because men's attitudes and preferences are also important, analytic approaches based on couples should also be explored. METHODS: Data from the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 rounds of the National Survey of Family Growth yielded a sample of 4,591 men and women who were married or cohabiting with an opposite-sex partner and who had completed their intended childbearing. Respondents' reports of both their own and their partners' characteristics and behaviors were employed in two sets of analyses examining educational and racial and ethnic differences in contraceptive use: an individualistic approach (using multinomial logistic regression) and a couple approach (using multinomial logistic diagonal reference models). RESULTS: In the full model using the individualistic approach, respondents with less than a high school education were less likely than those with at least a college degree to rely on male sterilization (odds ratios, 0.1-0.2) or a reversible method (0.4-0.5), as opposed to female sterilization. Parallel analyses limited to couples in which partners had the same educational levels (i.e., educationally homogamous couples) showed an even greater difference between those with the least and those with the most schooling (0.03 for male sterilization and 0.2 for a reversible method). When race and ethnicity, which had a much higher level of homogamy, were examined, the approaches yielded more similar results. CONCLUSIONS: Research on contraceptive use can benefit from a couple approach, particularly when focusing on partners' characteristics for which homogamy is relatively low.

The perplexing links between contraceptive sterilization and (dis)advantage in ten low-fertility countries.

This study investigated the association between contraceptive sterilization and socio-economic status (measured by educational attainment) in ten countries, using data from the 2006-10 National Survey of Family Growth and the 2004-10 Generations and Gender Surveys. The findings confirm that a long-standing association between socio-economic status and sterilization persists in the contemporary United States: female sterilization is associated with economic disadvantage, whereas male sterilization is associated with economic advantage. The latter association is found to be unique to the United States, but female sterilization is associated with disadvantage in most of the other countries studied. While basic demographic background factors such as early childbearing and parity can explain the observed associations in most of the countries, a strong gendered association between sterilization and socio-economic status remains in the United States and Belgium even after adjusting for these factors.

Who is using long-acting reversible contraceptive methods? Findings from nine low-fertility countries.

CONTEXT: Long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods-IUDs and implants-are more effective than other reversible methods, yet are little used in the United States. Examining which U.S. women use LARC methods and how they differ from users in other low-fertility countries may help point the way toward increasing use. METHODS: Data from married or cohabiting women participating in the National Survey of Family Growth (2008-2010) and in eight countries' Generations and Gender Programme surveys (2004-2010) were used in bivariate and multinomial logistic regression analyses examining LARC use within each setting. RESULTS: The proportion of contraceptive use accounted for by LARC methods was generally greater in Europe (10-32%) than in the United States (10%) and Australia (7%). Compared with LARC use among comparable groups in other countries, use was particularly low among U.S. women who were married, were aged 40-44 or had had three or more children, yet was comparatively high among 18-24-year-olds. Among U.S. women, those aged 35-39 or 40-44 were more likely than 18-29-year-olds to rely on sterilization rather than on LARC methods (odds ratios, 3.0 and 10.7, respectively), those who had had three or more children were more likely to do so than were those who had had none or one (4.9), and women who had completed college were less likely than those who had not finished high school to do so (0.4). CONCLUSIONS: Certain subgroups of U.S. women may benefit from the reversibility and effectiveness of LARC methods.

Partner selection and divorce in ethnic minorities: distinguishing between two types of ethnic homogamous marriages.

This article compares divorce risks according to marriage type. The common dichotomy between ethnic homogamous and ethnic heterogamous marriages is further elaborated by differentiating a third marriage type; ethnic homogamous marriages between individuals from an ethnic minority group and a partner from the country of origin. Based on the analysis of data concerning the Turkish and Moroccan minorities in Belgium, it has been confirmed that the divorce risk associated with these marriages is higher than that of other ethnic homogamous marriages. However, specific divorce patterns according to marriage type also indicate the importance of differences between the minority groups.