COMPARISON OF 2 QUESTION SEQUENCES FOR ASSESSING PREGNANCY INTENTIONS

Unintended pregnancies can have serious health, social, and economic c onsequences, Such pregnancies may be unwanted (a baby is not wanted at any time) or mistimed, yet wanted (a baby is wanted eventually). Inte nded pregnancies are those conceived when desired. Reproductive-health survey respondents' understanding of these concepts and validity of s urvey results may be affected by question order and wording, Using a r andomized crossover design, National Survey oi Family Growth (NSFG) an d Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) intendedness questions were aske d in a 1993 survey of Arizona women aged 18-44 years, Of 2,352 ever-pr egnant respondents, 25% gave discordant responses to DHS and NSFG ques tions about the most recent pregnancy. Age, marital status, household income, education, parity, time since pregnancy, and outcome of pregna ncy were significantly predictive of discordant responses, DHS and NSF G questions yielded similar prevalence estimates of intendedness and w antedness; but young, unmarried respondents gave more ''mistimed'' res ponses on whichever question was asked later. Classifying pregnancies as intended, mistimed, or unwanted may be a problem for women who have not decided on lifetime reproductive preferences, Approaches to impro ving survey validity include addressing ambivalence, clarifying the de finition of ''unwanted,'' and, for young, unmarried women, not attempt ing to classify unintended pregnancies as mistimed or unwanted.