https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

Statistical Analysis with Missing Data

Psychologists have worried about the distortions introduced into standardized personality measures by social desirability bias. Survey researchers have had similar concerns about the accuracy of survey reports about such topics as illicit drug use, abortion, and sexual behavior. The article reviews the research done by survey methodologists on reporting errors in surveys on sensitive topics, noting parallels and differences from the psychological literature on social desirability. The findings from the survey studies suggest that misreporting about sensitive topics is quite common and that it is largely situational. The extent of misreporting depends on whether the respondent has anything embarrassing to report and on design features of the survey. The survey evidence also indicates that misreporting on sensitive topics is a more or less motivated process in which respondents edit the information they report to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of an interviewer or to avoid repercussions from third parties.

https://www.learnlab.org/research/wiki/images/a/a8/Tourangeau_SensitiveQuestions.pdf

Sensitive questions in surveys.

羟氨苄青霉素引起大疱性类天疱疮样疹

Sponsors asked the IOM's Food and Nutrition Board and the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Board on Children, Youth, and Families to review and update the IOM (1990) recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy and recommend ways to encourage their adoption through consumer education, strategies to assist practitioners, and public health strategies.The committee was asked to address the following tasks: 1. Review evidence on the relationship between weight gain patterns before, during, and after pregnancy and maternal and child health outcomes, with particular attention to the prevalence of maternal obesity racial/ethnic and age differences, components of GWG, and implications of weight during pregnancy on postpartum weight retention, maternal and child obesity, and later child health. 2. Within a life-stage framework consider factors in relation to GWG that are associated with maternal health outcomes such as lactation performance, postpartum weight retention, cardiovascular disease, metabolic processes including glucose and insulin-related issues, and risk of other chronic diseases; for infants and children, in addition to low birth weight, consider early developmental impacts and obesity-related consequences (e.g., mental health, diabetes). 3. Recommend revisions to the existing guidelines, where necessary, including the need for specific pregnancy weight guidelines for underweight, normal weight, and overweight and obese women and adolescents and women carrying twins or higher-order multiples. 4. Consider a range of approaches to promote appropriate weight gain, including: individual (behavior), psychosocial, community, health care, and health systems; timing and components of interventions; and ways to enhance awareness and adoption of the guidelines, including interdisciplinary approaches, consumer education to men and women, strategies to assist practitioners to use the guidelines, and public health strategies. 5. Identify gaps in knowledge and recommend research priorities.

/pdf/weight-gain-during-pregnancy-reexamining-the-guidelines-54naat6auf.pdf

Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines

Context Adolescent pregnancy occurs in all societies, but the level of teenage pregnancy and childbearing varies from country to country. A cross-country analysis of birth and abortion measures is valuable for understanding trends, for identifying countries that are exceptional and for seeing where further in-depth studies are needed to understand observed patterns. Methods Birth, abortion and population data were obtained from various sources, such as national vital statistics reports, official statistics, published national and international sources, and government statistical offices. Trend data on adolescent birthrates were compiled for 46 countries over the period 1970-1995. Abortion rates for a recent year were available for 33 of the 46 countries, and data on trends in abortion rates could be gathered for 25 of the 46 countries. Results The level of adolescent pregnancy varies by a factor of almost 10 across the developed countries, from a very low rate in the Netherlands (12 pregnancies per 1,000 adolescents per year) to an extremely high rate in the Russian Federation (more than 100 per 1,000). Japan and most western European countries have very low or low pregnancy rates (under 40 per 1,000); moderate rates (40-69 per 1,000) occur in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a number of European countries. A group of five countries--Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, the Russian Federation and the United States--have pregnancy rates of 70 or more per 1,000. The adolescent birthrate has declined in the majority of industrialized countries over the past 25 years, and in some cases has been more than halved. Similarly, pregnancy rates in 12 of the 18 countries with accurate abortion reporting showed declines. Decreases in the adolescent abortion rate, however, were less prevalent. Conclusions The trend toward lower adolescent birthrates and pregnancy rates over the past 25 years is widespread and is occurring across the industrialized world, suggesting that the reasons for this general trend are broader than factors limited to any one country: increased importance of education, increased motivation of young people to achieve higher levels of education and training, and greater centrality of goals other than motherhood and family formation for young women.

Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing: levels and trends in developed countries.

Pregnancies among contraceptive users account for nearly half of all unintended pregnancies and are almost entirely due to inconsistent or incorrect contraceptive use. Understanding what factors contribute to inconsistent contraceptive behavior can help efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy. In 2004 a nationally representative sample of women aged 18-44 using reversible contraceptive methods were surveyed to examine factors associated with contraceptive choice and with inconsistent use of the pill and condoms. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the data. Contraceptive choice was associated with a range of socioeconomic and partnership characteristics and with pregnancy- method- and provider-related experiences and attitudes; inconsistent pill or condom use was associated mainly with partnership experiential and attitudinal factors. For example not having a college education was negatively associated with pill use (odds ratio 0.6) and positively associated with use of long-acting methods (1.8-1.9). Women for whom avoiding pregnancy was only a little or not important had reduced odds of using the pill (0.4)and elevated odds of using other methods such as withdrawal or periodic abstinence (4.4) and of using condoms inconsistently (2.6). Use of a method chosen mostly out of dislike of other methods was positively associated with condom use (4.0) and negatively associated with use of the pill or long-acting methods (0.4 for each).Women who were not completely satisfied with their method were more likely than others to use their method inconsistently (1.6 for pill users and 1.9 for condom users). Greater efforts are needed to provide women and their partners with a range of method options to facilitate selection of methods that best suit their needs and circumstances and to identify and assist users who are dissatisfied or are having difficulties using contraceptives effectively.

Factors Associated with Contraceptive Choice and Inconsistent Method Use, United States, 2004

CONTEXT: Adolescent pregnancy, birth, abortion and sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates are much higher in the United States than in most other developed countries. METHODS: Government statistics or nationally representative survey data were supplemented with data collected by private organizations or for regional or local populations to conduct studies of adolescent births, abortions, sexual activity and contraceptive use in Canada, the United States, Sweden, France and Great Britain. RESULTS: Adolescent childbearing is more common in the United States (22% of women reported having had a child before age 20) than in Great Britain (15%), Canada (11%), France (6%) and Sweden (4%); differences are even greater for births to younger teenagers. A lower proportion of teenage pregnancies are resolved through abortion in the United States than in the other countries; however, because of their high pregnancy rate, U.S. teenagers have the highest abortion rate. The age of sexual debut varies little across countries, yet American teenagers are the most likely to have multiple partners. A greater proportion of U.S. women reported no contraceptive use at either first or recent intercourse (25% and 20%, respectively) than reported nonuse in France (11% and 12%, respectively), Great Britain (21% and 4%, respectively) and Sweden (22% and 7%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Data on contraceptive use are more important than data on sexual activity in explaining variation in levels of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing among the five developed countries; however, the higher level of multiple sexual partnership among American teenagers may help explain their higher STD rates.

/pdf/differences-in-teenage-pregnancy-rates-among-five-developed-3nn1hjl311.pdf

Differences in teenage pregnancy rates among five developed countries: the roles of sexual activity and contraceptive use.

CONTEXT Knowing the extent to which contraceptive nonuse, incorrect or inconsistent use, and method failure account for unintended pregnancies ending in abortion, as well as reasons for nonuse and imperfect use, can help policymakers and family planning providers support effective contraceptive use. METHODS Contraceptive use patterns among a nationally representative sample of 10,683 women receiving abortion services in 2000-2001 were examined, as well as reasons for nonuse, problems with the most frequently used methods and the impact emergency contraceptive pills have had on abortion rates. RESULTS Forty-six percent of women had not used a contraceptive method in the month they conceived, mainly because of perceived low risk of pregnancy and concerns about contraception (cited by 33% and 32% of nonusers respectively). The male condom was the most commonly reported method among all women (28%), followed by the pill (14%). Inconsistent method use was the main cause of pregnancy for 49% of condom users and 76% of pill users; 42% of condom users cited condom breakage or slippage as a reason for pregnancy. Substantial proportions of pill and condom users indicated perfect method use (13-14%). As many as 51,000 abortions were averted by use of emergency contraceptive pills in 2000. CONCLUSIONS Women and men need accurate information about fertility cycles and about the risk of pregnancy when a contraceptive is not used or is used imperfectly. Increased use of emergency contraceptive pills could further reduce levels of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Contraceptive use among U.S. women having abortions in 2000-2001.

Caring for the health of women and their babies is essential yet family planning and maternal and newborn services fall well short of needs in developing countries. Using new estimates for 2008 this report shows that: an estimated 215 million women who want to avoid a pregnancy are not using an effective method of contraception despite increases in use in recent years; only about one-half of the 123 million women who give birth each year receive antenatal delivery and newborn care (including routine care and care for complications) and many who get care do not receive all the components of care they need; and about 20 million women have unsafe abortions each year and three million of the estimated 8.5 million who need care for subsequent health complications do not receive it. New analyses also show that the direct health benefits of meeting the need for both family planning and maternal and newborn health services would be dramatic. Unintended pregnancies would drop by more than two-thirds from 75 million in 2008 to 22 million per year. Seventy percent of maternal deaths would be averted -- a decline from 550000 to 160000. Forty-four percent of newborn deaths would be averted -- a decline from 3.5 million to 1.9 million. Unsafe abortions would decline by 73% from 20 million to 5.5 million (assuming no change in abortion laws) and the number of women needing medical care for complications of unsafe procedures would decline from 8.5 million to two million. The healthy years of life lost due to disability and premature death among women and their newborns would be reduced by more than 60%. (This is measured in disability-adjusted life years or DALYs an internationally used standard for comparing the cost-effectiveness of health services.) More women would survive hemorrhage and infection and fewer would endure needless suffering from fistula infertility and other health problems related to pregnancy or childbirth. Newborns would have improved chances of surviving asphyxia low birth weight and infection. (Excerpts)

/pdf/adding-it-up-the-costs-and-benefits-of-investing-in-family-1iiol6ik1n.pdf

Jacqueline E. Darroch

Papers

Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing: levels and trends in developed countries.

Factors Associated with Contraceptive Choice and Inconsistent Method Use, United States, 2004

Differences in teenage pregnancy rates among five developed countries: the roles of sexual activity and contraceptive use.

Contraceptive use among U.S. women having abortions in 2000-2001.

Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing In Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health