Use of Most Contraceptive Methods Decreased from 2019-2022: Daily Dose

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Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

Last week, we reported on findings from a study published in JAMA Network Open that examined changes in contraception services and workforce in the US.

The study

Researchers identified 731 447 clinicians who provided contraception services between January 2019 to December 2022 from IQVIA.

The primary outcomes were the monthly volume of contraception service visits by type and the annual number and type of clinicians providing the services. Contraception methods included new prescriptions for pills, patches, and rings and visits for intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, injectable (depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate), vasectomy, and tubal sterilization.

The findings

The research team found that most contraception services showed steady downward trends, except for sharp declines during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and temporary increases in the month following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.

From 2019 to 2022, there were decreases in the volume of IUD services (from 650 043 to 591 509) and tubal sterilization services (from 103 547 to 74 537). However, the volume of vasectomy services steadily increased, going from 146 796 in 2019 to 198 212 in 2022. Also, new contraceptive prescriptions (ie, pill, patch, and/or ring) decreased from more than 25 million in 2019 to less than 22 million in 2022. Investigators noted that prescription duration increased with 44 237 865 prescriptions (68%) in 2019 limited to 1 month compared with 27 925 732 (46%) in 2022.

Investigators added that the workforce providing contraception services shifted from 2019 to 2022, with increases in the number of APCs providing IUD, implant, and prescriptions and decreases in physicians providing prescriptions.

Authors' comment

“As 2023 data become available, future research should continue to track changes in contraception workforce composition and access to the full range of contraceptive methods."

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