Positive pregnancy tests at Stanford: a follow up study, 1978-1980.

Abstract

This follow-up study compares a 1978-80 survey of 195 patients with positive pregnancy tests to a previous study of a survey in 1973-75 in order to analyze the association of unplanned pregnancies and contraceptive practices among Stanford University students. Of the 195 patients, 105 (54%) filled out questionnaires and more information was retrieved from medical records of 69 other students. Comparison was made to a control population consisting of 100 sexually active women out of a total of 132 who were given the questionnaire. 55 (28.4%) of the pregnancies out of the total of 174 were planned while 119 were unplanned. This compares with 177 (40 planned (22.6%), 130 unplanned, 7 unknown) from 1978 and 95 (17 planned (17.8%), 63 unplanned, 15 unknown) from 1975. Those with planned pregnancies were generally married graduate students or student wives. Of the unplanned group, 24.4% were married and continued the pregnancy (7.6%), whereas the 90 single pregnant women elected to terminate (59.7%). The contraceptive methods that were used unsuccessfully to prevent pregnancy were "coitus dependent" methods such as the diaphragm (41.2%) and unreliable methods such as rhythm (16.8%). In the previous study, the diaphragm was only 15% relied upon. In the control populations, diaphragm use rose from 20% to 41% in 1979. These results confirm those of the earlier study in terms of the increased use of mechanical methods, e.g. the diaphragm, and an increasing number of unplanned pregnancies. This correlation prompts the need for student health services to develop ways to inform students better and for new approaches to be developed to combat the ultimate reliance upon abortion as a birth control method.