The link between quality of care and contraceptive use.
BACKGROUND
Little empirical evidence shows whether quality of family planning care influences continued use of contraception, and if so, to what extent.


METHODS
Interviews were conducted in 1997-1998 with 1,728 new family planning users who had sought services at 80 service delivery points in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, the Philippines, to assess the quality of care received from family planning services providers. More than 16 months later, 1,460 of the respondents participated in a follow-up survey; the respondents' current contraceptive status was recorded.


RESULTS
The quality of care received at the time a woman adopted a contraceptive method influenced her contraceptive use at follow-up, after adjustment for the effects of background characteristics. Furthermore, use increased steadily with quality: The predicted probabilities of contraceptive use were 55% for low-quality care, 62% for medium-quality care and 67% for high-quality care.


CONCLUSIONS
A focus on quality improvement would benefit both programs and users.
RamaRao
Saumya
S
Population Council, New York, NY, USA. pubinfo@popcouncil.org
Lacuesta
Marlina
M
Costello
Marilou
M
Pangolibay
Blesilda
B
Jones
Heidi
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003267:Contraception / Q000592:standards*; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010679:Philippines / Q000453:epidemiology; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012648:Self Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires