Abstract
Background
Little is known about contraceptive care within the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care
system. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of documented contraception
by race/ethnicity within the VA and to examine the association between receiving primary
care in women's health clinics (WHCs) and having a documented contraceptive method.
Study Design
We examined national VA administrative and pharmacy data for 103,950 female veterans
aged 18���45 years who made at least one primary care clinic visit in 2008. Multivariable
regression models were used to examine the associations between race/ethnicity and
receipt of care in a WHC with having a method of contraception while controlling for
confounders.
Results
Only 22% of women veterans had a documented method of contraception during 2008. After
adjusting for potential confounders, Hispanic and African���American women were significantly
less likely to have a method compared to whites [odds ratio (OR): 0.82; 95% confidence
interval (CI): 0.76���0.88 and OR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.81���0.89, respectively]. Women
who went to WHCs were significantly more likely to have a method of contraception
compared to women who went to traditional primary care clinics (OR: 2.05; 95% CI:
1.97���2.14).
Conclusions
Overall contraceptive prevalence in the VA is low, but receiving care in a WHC is
associated with a significantly higher likelihood of having a contraceptive method.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 16, 2011
Accepted:
October 19,
2011
Received in revised form:
October 17,
2011
Received:
July 26,
2011
Footnotes
���Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest, financial or other, exists for any of the authors.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
