PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fabic, Madeleine Short
AU  - Jadhav, Apoorva
TI  - Standardizing Measurement of Contraceptive Use Among Unmarried Women
AID  - 10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00298
DP  - 2019 Dec 23
TA  - Global Health: Science and Practice
PG  - 564--574
VI  - 7
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/7/4/564.short
4100  - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/7/4/564.full
SO  - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT2019 Dec 23; 7
AB  - Because contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning estimates for unmarried women vary widely depending on the chosen sexual recency inclusion factor, all data platforms should adopt a 1-month window in these calculations to have comparable and actionable estimates.Historically, the family planning practices and needs of married women have been monitored and reported uniformly. However, the same uniformity does not hold for unmarried women. Because key data and information platforms employ different measurement approaches—namely, different definitions of sexual recency—reports of contraceptive prevalence and unmet need among unmarried women are inconsistent. We examine how the measurement approaches employed by 3 large organizations yield such divergent estimates. We find that contraceptive prevalence and unmet need estimates among married women do not vary much by sexual recency. For unmarried women, contraceptive prevalence is systematically lower and unmet need is systematically higher as the sexual recency window widens. In the short term, we recommend using the 1-month cutoff as analyses reveal it yields the most precise estimates for better recognizing the needs of this important demographic group.