Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
3915530 Contraception 2008 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

BackgroundThis study was conducted to assess the potential impact of an unintended pregnancy on women's quality of life.Study DesignWe asked 192 nonpregnant women to report how they would feel if they learned that they were pregnant using a visual analog scale (VAS), a time trade-off (TTO) metric, a standard gamble (SG) metric and a willingness-to-pay (WTP) metric.ResultsWomen's anticipated responses to an unintended pregnancy varied widely. Using a VAS, 8% reported pregnancy would make them feel like they were dying. To avoid pregnancy, 28% of women were willing to trade time from the end of their life (TTO), 16% of women were willing to accept an immediate risk of death (SG) and 60% of women were willing to pay some amount of money (WTP). On average, women, using the VAS, TTO and SG metrics, reported that an unintended pregnancy would create a health utility state (where 0 represents death and 1 represents perfect health) of 0.487, 0.992 and 0.997, respectively.ConclusionThe anticipated effects of pregnancy on women's quality of life should be integrated into cost-effectiveness analyses of family planning services.

Related Topics
Health Sciences Medicine and Dentistry Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health
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