Urgent need for contraceptive education and services in Chinese unmarried undergraduates: A multi-campus survey

Summary In order to ascertain prevalence rate of premarital sexual intercourse, unintended pregnancy and abortion, and evaluate associated factors of unintended pregnancy among undergraduates from all over China, the representative sample of unmarried undergraduates was obtained by using a multi-stage, stratified, probability cluster design, and data were collected by using a survey questionnaire. 62 326 available responders were gained. 11.6% of them acknowledged having experiences of premarital sexual intercourse (standardized prevalence rate of sexual intercourse was 13.8%). 31.5% of students active in premarital sex acknowledged undergoing unintended pregnancy. 76.2% of pregnant students selected abortion to end it. Of students active in premarital sex, 46.2% used contraception at the first sexual intercourse, 28.2% replied “always” using contraception in sexual intercourse. The rate of using condoms, oral contraceptives (OCs), and withdrawal among students who had used contraception was 52.0%, 31.0%, and 27.2% respectively. “No preparation for sex” (40.3%), “pleasure decrement” (32.1%), “won’t-be-pregnancy in occasional sexual intercourse” (30.2%) were their common excuses for using no contraception. The identified risk factors for unintended pregnancy among students active in premarital sex by multivariate analysis were as follows: having no steady lover [having no steady lover vs having a steady lover: odds ratio (OR), 1.875; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.629–2.158], unaware of the course of conception (unaware vs aware: OR, 2.023; 95% CI, 1.811–2.260), considering abortion not endanger women’s physical and mental health (no endangerment vs endangerment: OR, 2.659; 95% CI, 2.265–3.121), nonuse of contraception (never use vs always use: OR, 1.682; 95% CI, 1.295–2.185). Medical students were not less likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than nonmedical students (OR, 1.111; 95% CI, 0.906–1.287). The substantial proportion of unintended pregnancy among undergraduates indicates a need for convenient and targeted contraceptive education and services.