Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the contraceptive practice and sociodemographic determinants of employment of contraceptive methods among sexually active women.

Design and methods: A randomly selected representative sample of 4542 women aged 15–49 years from the Hungarian population participated in a prospective web-based and postal questionnaire survey. Women completed self-report questionnaires on sociodemographic characteristics, contraceptive practice and sexual activity between June and July 2015. Factors associated with the use of reliable contraceptives were studied. Multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the factors influencing the contraceptive practice of women in reproductive age. Informed consent was obtained by email or written form via post.

Results: The mean age of the women was 29.4 years (±8), and 77% reported urban residents. The rate of use of reliable methods (hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices or sterilization) was 43%, while no method was used by 4.7% of the participants. They had stable sexual partnership (91.1%) predominantly and almost one tenth claimed that they had only occasional partner (8.9%).

Logistic regression indicated that high income was favourable for the choice of modern contraceptive methods (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.1), like the increased sexual frequency (AOR:1.1). The number of lifetime partners (AOR:0.99) and sexarche (AOR:0.94) was correlated inversely with the use of reliable contraceptives. Previous abortion (AOR:1.4) or delivery (AOR:1.58) was correlated significantly with an increased chance of reliable method use. Women with future child wish are significantly less prone to the use of reliable methods (AOR:0.70).

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large scale representative report describing the contraceptive preferences in Hungary as a result of complex interplay between sociodemographic and sexual characteristics.