Emergency contraception (EC) is effective in preventing pregnancy within 72 hours of unprotected sex, yet due to a lack of counseling many women are unaware that a post-intercourse form of contraception is available. While several factors have been examined regarding a woman’s receipt of EC counseling, there is limited research about the association between health insurance and the receipt of counseling. The purpose of this project was to examine associations between health insurance type and consistency and receipt of EC counseling among women of reproductive age. Data were analyzed using a correlational study design with cross-sectional data from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). The NSFG is a nationally representative community survey on the reproductive health of men and women aged 15-44 years. The sample for this study included 7,308 women aged 15-44 years. The primary independent variables for this study were insurance type (public, private, none) and consistency over 12 months. Descriptive statistics examined the prevalence of EC counseling receipt and sample characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine associations between insurance type and consistency and women’s receipt of EC counseling. It was hypothesized that women who had private or Medicaid insurance would be more likely to have received EC counseling than women without insurance as would women with consistent versus inconsistent coverage. The results showed that a woman’s type and consistency of insurance coverage did not have a significant association with her receipt of EC counseling, which contradicts the original research hypothesis. Although health insurance was not associated with a woman’s receipt of EC counseling, only 3% of the sample reported they had received EC counseling in the past 12 months. Interventions are needed to increase EC counseling to enable women to make an educated decision regarding methods of post-intercourse pregnancy prevention.No embarg
