Introduction/ Objective:
Contraceptive options may be limited for people in rural Utah in comparison their urban counterparts. Our objective was to assess contraceptive method use and selection before and after abortion services among rural and urban individuals. Methods:
We utilized data from a study assessing contraceptive use prior to and after abortion. This study collected pre-and post-abortion data from participants, including contraceptive methods used prior to pregnancy, and contraceptive methods used at 3-months after their abortion. We conducted multivariable linear and logistic regression models to assess contraceptive use patterns and compare differences in contraceptive use. All analyses were conducted using Stata. Results:
A total of 527 were enrolled in the parent study, 49 (9.3%) of whom were from rural areas. Our analyses found that rural people reported using fewer contraceptive methods prior to their abortion than urban individuals (ARR: -0.053; 95% Cl: -0.531- 0.423). The majority of our findings did not reach statistical significance, likely due to the small sample of rural participants. However, our study did identify several points of borderline significance for further investigation. We found that people who reported difficulty in accessing contraceptives were more likely to report using a method they'd previously used before at their 3-month post abortion follow-up (ARR: 0.178; 95% CI: -0.145, 0.502). Among participants, rural people were more likely to report use of the same method pre- and post-abortion (AOR: 1.73; 95% CI: 0.359, 8.337). We also found that rural participants were more likely to report acquiring their birth control online (AOR: 2.7; 95% CI: 0.83, 8.75). Conclusion:
Rural and urban participants showed some differences in both the number of methods they'd used prior to their abortion, as well as their ability to access methods pre/post-abortion which supports the need for additional research.