Study Results from East Tennessee State University Update Understanding of Insurance (Association of Health Insurance With Contraceptive Use and Interpersonal Quality of Contraceptive Care In the Southeast United States): Insurance

2023 MAY 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on Insurance have been published. According to news reporting out of Johnson City, Tennessee, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Health insurance remains an important dimension of contraceptive access. This study investigated the role of insurance in contraceptive use, access, and quality in South Carolina and Alabama.”

Financial supporters for this research include private philanthropic foundation, East Tennessee State University.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from East Tennessee State University, “The study used a cross-sectional statewide representative survey that assessed reproductive health experiences and contraceptive use among reproductive-age women in South Carolina and Alabama. The primary outcomes were current contraceptive method use, barriers to access (inability to afford wanted method, delay/trouble obtaining wanted method), receipt of any contraceptive care in the past 12 months, and perceived quality of care. The independent variable was insurance type. Generalized linear models were applied to estimate prevalence ratios for each outcome’s association with insurance type while adjusting for potentially confounding variables. Nearly 1 in 5 women (17.6%) was uninsured, and 1 in 4 women (25.3%) reported not using a contraceptive method at the time of the survey. Compared with women with private insurance, women with no insurance had a lower likelihood of current method use (adjusted prevalence ratio 0.75; 95% confidence interval 0.60-0.92) and receipt of contraceptive care in the past 12 months (adjusted prevalence ratio 0.61; 95% confidence interval 0.45-0.82). These women also were more likely to experience cost barriers to access care. The insurance type was not significantly associated with the interpersonal quality of contraceptive care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Findings highlight the need for expanding Medicaid in states that did not do so under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, interventions to increase the number of providers who accept Medicaid patients, and protections to Title X funding as key elements for enhancing contraceptive access and population health outcomes.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Association of Health Insurance With Contraceptive Use and Interpersonal Quality of Contraceptive Care In the Southeast United States. Southern Medical Journal, 2023;116(4):358-364. Southern Medical Journal can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Southern Medical Journal - http://journals.lww.com/smajournalonline/pages/default.aspx)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kate E. Beatty, East Tennessee State University, Dept. of Health Services Management and Policy, College of Public Health, Johnson City, TN, United States. Additional authors for this research include Nathan Hale, Amal J. Khoury, Michael G. Smith, Liane M. Ventura and Jusung Lee.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001543. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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