Factors associated with oral contraceptive use among sexually active adolescent females

Abstract

Background Little is known about the factors associated with oral contraceptive pill (OCP) use among sexually active adolescent females, including the effect on use among teens seeking care at school-based health clinics. The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with OCP use among adolescents. Methods Data were analyzed from a questionnaire administered between December, 1994 and October, 1995 to 826 adolescents from a hospital-based adolescent clinic and 116 from a school-based clinic as part of study measuring compliance with the hepatitis B vaccination series. In addition to sexual activity and OCP use, other measures included age, race, health insurance coverage, medications, chronic illnesses, academic achievement, substance use, sharing needles, condom use at last intercourse, sexually transmitted disease history, date of last well check-up, and travel time to the clinical site. The data from 327 sexually active females were analyzed including 272 participants from the hospital-based adolescent clinic and 55 participants from the school-based clinic. 27 additional females who reported using OCPs and reported no sexual activity were excluded from the analysis. The associations of independent variables with OCP use were measured with chi square for categorical variables, Kruskall-Wallis for ordinal variables, and t-tests for continuous variables, followed by a logistic regression analysis. For ordinal variables, the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) reflect the change in the odds of using OCPs associated with a change in each ranked category for that variable. Results 37.6% of the sexually active females reported using OCPs. The independent variables associated with OCP use include being more likely to be taking iron pills (p = 0.038), less likely to have used a condom at last intercourse (p = 0.025), more likely to have had a well check-up within the past year (P = 0.002), older age (P Conclusions Adolescent OCP users are less likely than non-users to smoke tobacco and are more likely to have had a more recent well check-up and to have graduated from high school. Importantly, sexually active females who receive care in a school-based clinic are significantly less likely to be taking OCPs.