The Ohio Profile of Contraceptive Access and Use

The Ohio Profile of Contraceptive Access and Use

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The Ohio Profile of Contraceptive Access and Use describes access to contraception in Ohio, including geographic variation across the state, contraceptive use patterns, gaps in coverage, and changes over time and among a range of potential contraceptive users. No single data source on health and contraception covers all outcomes and populations in a timely manner, and all data sources impose trade-offs and limitations. The Ohio Profile integrates data from multiple data sources that address contraception access as well as related issues, such as availability of services, insurance status, and demographic characteristics.

This is your one stop for understanding the complexity of contraceptive access in Ohio.

The Ohio Profile for Contraception Access and Use visualizes data such as maps, graphs, and data stories on contraceptive use and access in Ohio. The project takes this route to breakdown the data and explain the methods behind the results. This data is available for public use.

Even though the benefits of contraception are well-known, people still experience challenges accessing their preferred contraception at a reasonable cost. This is because several community, health systems (hospitals and public health), and individual factors interact to affect access and use of contraception, which in turn impact health outcomes. As the reproductive health landscape changes in Ohio, The Ohio Profile for Contraception Access and Use provides a real-time understanding of how context influences contraceptive access and ultimately contributes to differences in health outcomes across our communities.

Our health starts in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities. It is determined in part by how well we can access social, economic, and health care resources and supports in our communities. Differences in the conditions of our communities explain in part why some Americans are healthier than others and why Americans in general are not as healthy as they could be. According to Healthy People 2020, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, women with lower levels of education and income, uninsured women, Latina women, and non-Hispanic Black women are less likely to have access to family planning services, including contraception. Because community local context helps determine the services to which people have access, understanding the county context is essential for identifying which societal barriers exist for accessing preferred contraception.

Want to know more about your community’s health? Explore our County Health Indicators related to contraceptive access or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named family planning and improved maternal and child health as two of the top 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. The benefits of contraception are widely recognized and include the following:

  • improved health and well-being
  • reduced maternal mortality
  • health benefits of pregnancy spacing for maternal and child health
  • female engagement in the workforce
  • economic self-sufficiency for health.

To illustrate impact, we will show how contraceptive access is linked to health outcomes and how this varies by communities in Ohio using the County Health Indicators.

Our data stories will help break down how the pieces of Ohio’s health system – policies, institutions, and people – influence contraceptive access.

People often think of health care as seeking care from a doctor in an office or a hospital, but health care is delivered within a broader system. Health system factors that affect access to contraception include:

  • the legal and legislative climate
  • cost and insurance coverage
  • public and private institutional barriers
  • aspects specific to doctors and other medical professionals

Findings

Team Members