Survey reveals changes in contraception use during COVID-19 pandemic

Based on data from the American Family Health Study (AFHS), 2020-2022, available from DSDR, the findings in this article provide a nationwide picture of how contraceptive use changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, across different demographic subgroups. As the first nationally representative web survey of US fertility, the AFHS was able to monitor US reproductive health between 2020 and 2022, when the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) was not being fielded due to the pandemic. The web survey used “measures calibrated to the pre-pandemic NSFG to assess fertility intentions, sex, contraception, pregnancy, and childbearing.” Axinn et al. were among the investigators who created the AFHS, and for this article they analyzed detailed event history data from over 1,300 female study participants, aged 18 to 49, who provided monthly calendar information from both before and after the pandemic. Axinn et al. found that while respondents were not anymore likely to start using birth control during the pandemic, certain groups became significantly less likely to stop using it. Hispanic women showed the most dramatic change, becoming 71 percent less likely to discontinue contraception during the pandemic compared to before. Additionally, women over 40 became 78 percent less likely to stop using birth control compared to younger women.