Abstract

PIP: The fifth cycle of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Survey of Family Growth sampled 10,847 women aged 15-44 years in personal interviews between January and October 1995. The survey found that condom use among never-married women increased from 4% in 1982 to 14% in 1995 and that condom use at first intercourse increased from 18% in the 1970s to 36% in the late 1980s and 54% in the 1990s. The interviewers received more reports of condom use partly because of a change in the 1995 survey which allowed them to ask about the use of contraceptive methods for any reason. 17.8% of the women reported being sterilized, 17.3% used oral contraception, 13.1% used condoms, and male partners were sterilized in 7% of cases. 2% of women used hormonal injectables, 1% implants, and 2% or less used the diaphragm, withdrawal, and periodic abstinence. Less than 1% used the female condom, implants, and IUDs. 10% of births during 1990-95 were unwanted by the mother at the time of conception, down from 12% over the period 1984-88. The number of women reporting being treated for pelvic inflammatory disease fell from 14% in 1982, to 11% in 1988 and 8% in 1995. The data also indicate a decline in the incidence of vaginal douching.