Contraceptives essays

Contraceptives essays CONTRACEPTIVE USE AT FIRST INTERCOURSE The 1995 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report on contraceptive use at First intercourse presented tables of data based on women population 15 to 44 years of age in the U.S. who had voluntary premarital intercourse. The tables illustrate percentages of women that used contraceptives and selected methods of contraceptives during first time intercourse. This information is broken down by age, race and Hispanic origin, and year of first intercourse. The data indicates that in general contraceptive use during first time intercourse increases with age. As illustrated in the age group table, only 51.4 percent of teenagers under 16 years of age used contraceptives during first time intercourse as opposed to 65.6 percent of women 20 years of age and over. There was however, a slight decrease in percentage from 61.5 to 60.0 percent in women 18 to 19 years of age, respectively. In terms of race, the overall trend indicates that Hispanic women were the group least likely to! use contraceptives during first time intercourse. In comparison to non-Hispanic white 64.8 percent, and non-Hispanic black 50.1 percent, only 36.2 percent of Hispanic women used contraception. This trend is supported by data based on first time intercourse between 1990 to 1995 for women grouped by race under 20 years of age, and over 20 years of age. The data illustrates that 52.8 percent of Hispanic women under 20 used contraception, and over the age of 20 there was an increase to 53.7 percent. The data on black women under 20 years of age; 72.1 percent, and over 20 years of age; 72.4 percent. But, when comparing this data to white women, the gap between white and Hispanic women increases even further. White women under 20 years of age; 83.0 percent, and over 20 years of age; 81.5 percent. This raw data, unfortunately, does not give any indication of subgroups within each race group and their socioeconomic statu...