CHOICE OF CONTRACEPTIVE MODALITY BY WOMEN IN NORWAY

Study objective. To investigate the use of contraception in a represen tative sample of Norwegian women. Outcome measures. Frequency distribu tion of contraceptive methods by age, marital status and parity strata . Material. A sample of 4,933 women were selected at random from the C entral Population Register as participants in the second Norwegian fer tility study (1988). The response rate was 81% (n=4,019) and personal interviews of contraceptive use were carried out among 2,782 women who were fecund, sexually active and not pregnant. These women comprise t he study population. Results. 2,782 women were sexually active during the last month prior to the interview and thus in potential need of co ntraception. More than 50% of the women used either oral contraceptive s (21%) or IUDs (30%). The use of oral contraceptives decreased linear ly with age from a user rate of 60% among women 20-24 years old to 1.5 % among women 40-44 years of age. The use of IUDs increased from 6% in the youngest age group to nearly 40% among women aged 30-39 years of age. Oral contraceptives were preferentially used by childless women o r those with only one child, while IUDs were most often used by women with two or more children. The sterilisation rate increased by age and in the 40-44 age group one out of every three women was sterilised. N on-use was most frequent among the subgroups of women who planned chil dren in the future. Use of condoms and other coitus-dependent contrace ptives varied less with age, marital status and parity than did the us e of OC, IUDs or sterilisation. Conclusion. The user pattern concernin g different contraceptive methods reflects the general guidelines for contraceptives in Norway. The fact that nearly 70% of the women were i n one of the three categories - OC or IUD users, or one of the partner s was sterilised - reveals that the awareness and knowledge of modern contraception is high in Norwegian society.