Socio-educational factors associated with the non-use of contraceptive methods in university students from four Latin American countries

Abstract

Introduction: The care of contraception is important once you start the sex lives, but this hasn´t been measured in different realities of Latin-America. Objective: To determine the socio-educational factors associated with non-use of contraceptive methods in universities in four Latin American countries. Methodology: Cross-sectional study. Surveyed women students, who have started their sexual lives. They were asked about the use of condoms, rhythm method, birth control pills and next day pill. These´re described and associated to variables socio-educational. Results: 7% (47) did not use any of the 4 contraceptive methods; when performing the multivariate analysis, there were no statistically significant differences by country, the year of study or if they were Catholic/Christian (all values p>0.05), on the other hand, those of particular universities had a higher percentage of non- take care of yourself with one of the 4 methods (RPa: 2,52; IC95%: 1,24-5,14; value p=0,010). According to the use of one of the 4 methods, the country where it was surveyed had many differences between the use of one or the other method; the year of the degree was not associated with the non-use of any of the four methods; those who were Catholic or Christian used less oral contraception (p <0.001) and those who studied at private universities used the rhythm method more (p <0.05). Conclusions: A significant percentage did not use any of the four most common contraceptive methods, this being associated with the type of university.