Determinants for contraceptive use in young, single, Danish women from the general population

Determinants for contraceptive use were studied in 5031, non-pregnant women aged 20-29 rears from the general population in Denmark. Most women (72%) had never been pregnant, 34% had a history of a sexually transmitted disease, and 22% had ever had a legal abortion. Current contraception was most frequently condoms (60%) or oral contraceptives (33%). Among the women who used OCs or IUD, 32% reported additional condom use (double contraception). Important predictors of using one contraceptive method were lifetime number of sexual partners, parity, and age at first sexual intercourse for condoms and age for oral contraceptives. Also, women with a previous legal abortion were more likely to use condoms currently and women with a history of STDs were less likely to use condoms, but more likely to use OCs. Lifetime number of sexual partners was the only predictor of double contraception. Our data suggest a potential for reducing the number of unintended pregnancies and STDs in single women by increasing the information about the double principle in contraception. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.