title: Unplanned or unwanted? A randomized study of national estimates of pregnancy intentions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of question wording on national estimates of pregnancy intentions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data drawn from a national probability survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  The FECOND study in France in 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five thousand two hundred and seventy-two women and 3,373 men who reported 11,603 pregnancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants randomly assigned to answer 1 of 2 questions on whether they had planned or wanted each of their pregnancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Generalized estimated equation regression models used to test for differences in pregnancy intentions by question wording.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The use of different wording yielded a 6% point difference in estimates: 33.5% pregnancies were "unplanned," and 27.4% were "unwanted." The addition of information on reasons for not using contraception at the time of conception lead to significant recoding, which resulted in a significant reduction in the wording effect: 23.7% (95% CI 22.4-25.0) of pregnancies were unplanned, and 21.2% (95% CI 19.9-22.5) were unwanted. Results from the multivariate analysis confirm the greater chance of reporting an unplanned as compared with an unwanted pregnancy (relative risk 1.25 [95% CI 1.17-1.33]), even after recoding (relative risk 1.15 [95% CI 1.06-1.24]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows the strong effect of question wording on estimates of pregnancy intentions. The results also support the value of adding information on reasons for nonuse of contraception when assessing pregnancy intentions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, U1018, Inserm, Kremlin Bicêtre, France. Electronic address: cmoreau@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.affiliation: Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, U1018, Inserm, Kremlin Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: Aline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bohet
authors.affiliation: Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, U1018, Inserm, Kremlin Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Le Guen
authors.affiliation: Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Arnaud Régnier
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Loilier
authors.affiliation: Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, U1018, Inserm, Kremlin Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bajos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003268:Contraception Behavior; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D049168:Pregnancy, Unplanned; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: France; randomized study; survey instrument; unintended pregnancy