Pregnancy, abortion and fertility management in Britain during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
| Described female at birth | 18–24 years | 25–29 years | 30–34 years | 35–44 years | All* | All Natsal-3 | aOR |
| Pregnancy, past year | 9.5 (6.8 to 13.3) | 13.4 (10.6 to 16.8) | 13.2 (10.2 to 17.1) | 8.1 (6.3 to 10.3) | 10.6 (9.3 to 12.1) | 14.6 (13.5 to 15.8) | 0.56 (0.47 to 0.67); p<0.0001 |
| Unplanned | 18.5 (8.4 to 35.9) | 5.5 (2.0 to 13.9) | – | 5.2 (1.8 to 13.9) | 6.2 (3.6 to 10.3) | 18.3 (15.3 to 21.7) | 0.33 (0.18 to 0.59); p=0.0002 |
| Ambivalent | 57.3 (39.6 to 73.3) | 30.5 (19.9 to 43.8) | 24.8 (15.2 to 37.7) | 35.6 (24.4 to 48.5) | 34.9 (28.6 to 41.8) | 26.9 (23.5 to 30.7) | – |
| Planned | 24.2 (12.2 to 42.3) | 64.0 (51.0 to 75.3) | 75.2 (62.3 to 84.8) | 59.2 (46.3 to 71.0) | 58.9 (52.0 to 65.5) | 54.8 (50.6 to 58.9) | – |
| Terminated pregnancy, past year | 1.8 (0.7 to 4.5) | 0.5 (0.2 to 1.7) | 0.8 (0.3 to 2.6) | 0.5 (0.1 to 1.9) | 0.8 (0.4 to 1.4) | 2.3 (1.9 to 2.8) | 0.34 (0.18 to 0.63); p=0.0005 |
| Stopped/switched contraceptive method, past year* | 16.4 (12.7 to 20.9) | 12.6 (9.9 to 15.9) | 11.7 (8.8 to 15.4) | 6.0 (4.4 to 8.1) | 10.6 (9.3 to 12.1) | – | – |
| Denominator (unweighted, weighted) | 408, 327 | 538, 437 | 429, 354 | 754, 694 | 2129, 1812 | 4252, 2959 | – |
Weighted percentages reported with 95% CIs in parentheses.
*‘All’ comprises sexually experienced women aged 18–44 years, including WSW.
†Age-adjusted odds ratios (aOR) compare 1 year prevalence rates in Natsal-COVID-2 with Natsal-3. The aOR for six-item London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) scores in Natsal-Covid-2 and Natsal-3 represents odds of scoring 0–3 (unplanned) with the reference group being scores from 4 to 12 (ambivalent or planned).28 Denominators for pregnancy are shown; other denominators were of similar magnitude.
‡Natsal-3 comparison not available due to lack of variable in Natsal-3 dataset.
WSW, women who reported sex with women.