Trends in use and attitudes towards contraception in Sweden: results of a nationwide survey

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the results of a 2013 nationwide survey of 1001 women representative of the Swedish female population with the results of a similar survey carried out in 2017, after new guidelines for contraceptive use were published in 2014.

Methods: Women between 16 and 49 years of age took part in a telephone survey; questions covered demographics, contraceptive use, knowledge of and attitudes towards contraception, importance of monthly bleeding, and experience of unintended pregnancy. We compared the responses collected in 2013 with those collected in 2017.

Results: Of all women in 2017, 717/1008 (71.1%) were currently using contraception; 291/1008 (28.9%) women were not. Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) was used by 311/1008 (30.9%) women, which was a significant increase from 2013 (243/1001, 24.3%; p = .001). The unmet need for contraception in Sweden in 2017 was estimated to be 15.2%. A total of 783 (77.7%) women had never experienced an unintended pregnancy. A significantly higher proportion of unintended pregnancies reported in 2017 were terminated compared with 2013.

Conclusion: Sweden has a large unmet need for contraception. In 2017, LARC use had increased compared with 2013. A large proportion of women had experienced an unintended pregnancy. Increasing overall contraceptive use is important to reduce the rates of unintended and unwanted pregnancies.

Keywords: Abortion; LARC; contraception; termination of pregnancy; unintended pregnancy; unwanted pregnancy.