The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #54588

Aimee Afable-Munsuz, MPH, Department of International Health and Development, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2200, New Orleans, LA 70112, (504) 584-3655, aafable@tulane.edu

The proposed research relates cultural-specific pregnancy constructs to the original National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) unintended pregnancy measurement scheme to support the hypothesis that unintended pregnancy is overestimated among African-American women in New Orleans due to the social desirability bias in the report of mistimed adolescent pregnancies; and to introduce a possible explanation for the racial disparity in the levels of unintended pregnancy estimated by the NSFG.

Data will be taken from a sample of 650 prenatal and 650 family planning clients in two New Orleans clinics. The sample is composed of low-income African-American women 13 to 47 years of age. Two theoretical constructs relevant to understanding pregnancy intentions emerged during preliminary in-depth interviews - pregnancy desirability and pregnancy timing. Two experimental indices called the Valorization of Motherhood (VOM) index and the Importance of Pregnancy Timing (IPT) index were developed to measure these constructs. To examine whether there is an downward bias in the report of wanted adolescent pregnancies, levels of intended adolescent pregnancy, based on the NSFG measure, will be compared to levels of desirable adolescent pregnancy, based on the VOM index, among women with varying pregnancy experiences.

To determine which construct has authority in defining women’s pregnancy intentions, IPT and VOM will be related to contraceptive use at first sex, women’s motivation to avoid pregnancy, and ultimately the NSFG measure in three separate logistic regression models. These models will be stratified by age, pregnancy experience, and sexual experience; and will control for maternal background characteristics.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn one approach to developing cultural-specific health survey measures.
• Learn one approach to integrating qualitative and quantitative data collection methodologies.
• Learn one approach to assessing the validity of a nationally-recognized public health indicator.
• Understand the utility of using cultural-specific measures in the assessment of racial, ethnic, regional and socioeconomic variation in national health indicators.

Keywords: Reproductive Health Research, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.