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 Roma and non-Roma women.

Design and methods: This research included 133 Roma and 687 non-Roma women aged 18–26 from secondary schools Szeged. Women completed self-report questionnaires on sociodemographic characteristics, contraceptive practice and sexual activity between 2015 and 2017. Oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, male/female sterilization, vaginal ring, plaster, implant and injection were regarded as reliable methods, while barrier methods, periodic abstinence, withdrawal, spermicides, vaginal douche or no method were considered less reliable methods based upon the Pearl index. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to analyze socio-demographic factors associated with the use of contraception and unwanted pregnancy in both population groups.

Results: The mean age of the women was 25.4 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. Most women were married or lived in a long-term relationship (74.9%). Roma women are less educated than non-Roma women (P<0.001) Roma women use any type of contraception more often than non-Roma women. However, Roma women rely more on traditional and unsafe methods such as withdrawal and lactational amenorrhea method, but significantly less on modern methods such as pill, condom and intrauterine device (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Promoting reliable contraception methods and to organise educational courses about the importance of the use reliable contraceptive methods should be in the focus of national health policies and strategies related to reproductive health to reduce these ethnic differences and inequalities.

Funding statement: The present study supported by the Research Grant of ESC.