Reproductive Life Planning: A Cross-Sectional Study of What College Students Know and Believe

• Published in: Maternal and child health journal Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 1161 - 1169
• Main Authors: Kransdorf, Lisa N., Raghu, T. S., Kling, Juliana M., David, Paru S., Vegunta, Suneela, Knatz, Jo, Markus, Allan, Frey, Keith A., Chang, Yu-Hui H., Mayer, Anita P., Files, Julia A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2016; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; College campuses; College students; Contraception Behavior; Counseling; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Disease control; Family Planning Services; Female; Gynecology; Health Behavior; Health education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Literacy; Health planning; Health promotion; Humans; Male; Maternal and Child Health; Medical screening; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Patients; Pediatrics; Planning; Polls & surveys; Population Economics; Preconception Care; Pregnancy; Primary care; Public Health; Questionnaires; Sociology; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Universities; Womens health; Young Adult; Young adults; United States > US; Arizona; Reproductive health; Family planning; Preconception care
• ISSN: 1092-7875; 1573-6628
• DOI: 10.1007/s10995-015-1903-y

Objectives
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a reproductive life plan (RLP) to promote individual responsibility for preconception health. The objectives of this study were to determine existing awareness of RLPs in a cohort of reproductive-age adults and to evaluate their knowledge level and beliefs about reproductive life planning.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional survey study of adults ages 18–40 years old seeking care at the student health center of a large public university. Participation was voluntary. Survey responses were analyzed by age and gender.
Results
A total of 559 surveys were collected and analyzed. Only 24 % of participants had heard of an RLP although a majority (62.9 %) agreed that it is important to develop an RLP. Most respondents (85.4 %) preferred to receive information about reproductive life planning from a primary care provider or obstetrician-gynecologist, while only 4.2 % of patients surveyed reported ever being actually asked about an RLP by their healthcare provider. Among those who agreed that an RLP was important, knowledge of specific aspects of an RLP was lacking.
Conclusions
In our cohort of reproductive-age adults, general health literacy regarding RLPs was poor. Most of the young adults who responded to our survey did not know what an RLP was and even fewer had ever discussed one with their health provider.