Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research

Project Overview

The proposed study is a component of the evaluation of the We Can Do More Initiative: Improving Reproductive Health Delivery and Inspiring System Change in Harris County. This study involves conducting a multi-modal survey among women of reproductive age both through digital platforms and traditional channels. The purpose of this survey is to collect data on the current experiences, opinions, and attitudes of women seeking reproductive health services throughout Texas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the accessibility of medical care since the first stay-at-home orders in 2019, with people of color and low-income families bearing significant burdens. According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 40% of women changed their plans about when or how many children to have due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Black and Hispanic women were more likely than White women to state they wanted to have children later or have fewer children. Furthermore, 33% of women reported they had trouble getting their birth control because of the pandemic; this report was more common among Black, Hispanic, and lower-income women.

As vaccination rates increase and restrictions are lifted, it is important that health care providers and public health workers understand the current perspectives that women have of contraceptive care. This study will allow the We Can Do More Initiative understand how women are now approaching contraceptive care and evaluate the effectiveness of their current efforts.

The hypotheses are that a) the experiences of close friends and families will be positively associated with women’s birth control use, b) discomfort speaking about birth control and previous experiences with health care discrimination will be negatively associated with women’s birth control use, and c) women of color are more likely to report experiencing discrimination or avoiding care due to anticipation of discrimination.

The goal of this study is to assess women’s experiences and perceptions of reproductive health care in Harris County, particularly as it concerns birth control use and discrimination experiences.

The primary objective of this proposed survey study is to understand the current experiences, opinions, and attitudes of women seeking reproductive health services.

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