ReviewEpidemiologic reviews2010
Family planning and the burden of unintended pregnancies.
Review in Epidemiologic reviews, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 195 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
195 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Quality matters: the role of service quality in discontinuation of long-acting reversible contraceptives in Sub-Saharan Africa; systematic review and meta-analysis.Reproductive health · 2025Pooled it
- Pregnancy Intention and Pregnancy Outcome: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Maternal and child health journal · 2017Pooled it
- Economic Evaluation of Family Planning Interventions in Low and Middle Income Countries; A Systematic Review.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Preconception care: promoting reproductive planning.Reproductive health · 2014Pooled it
- The effects of pregnancy intention on the use of antenatal care services: systematic review and meta-analysis.Reproductive health · 2013Pooled it
- The impact of early age at first childbirth on maternal and infant health.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2012Pooled it
- Impact of increasing inter-pregnancy interval on maternal and infant health.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2012Pooled it
- Structured and sustained family planning support facilitates effective use of postpartum contraception amongst women living with HIV in South Western Uganda: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of global health · 2021Trial
- Long-term effects of unintended pregnancy on antiretroviral therapy outcomes among South African women living with HIV.AIDS (London, England) · 2019Trial
- Short message service communication improves exclusive breastfeeding and early postpartum contraception in a low- to middle-income country setting: a randomised trial.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2018Trial
- A randomized controlled trial of an intervention delivered by mobile phone app instant messaging to increase the acceptability of effective contraception among young people in Tajikistan.Reproductive health · 2018Trial
- CHARM, a gender equity and family planning intervention for men and couples in rural India: protocol for the cluster randomized controlled trial evaluation.Reproductive health · 2016Trial
- Contraceptive discontinuation and switching among couples receiving integrated HIV and family planning services in Lusaka, Zambia.AIDS (London, England) · 2013Trial
- Unintended pregnancy among HIV positive couples receiving integrated HIV counseling, testing, and family planning services in Zambia.PloS one · 2013Trial
- Determinants of modern family planning use among married adolescents in Bangladesh: evidence from a machine learning approach.BMC public health · 2026Article
- A comparative cross-sectional study of planned and unplanned pregnancies, their outcomes, predictors, and health-seeking behaviours among women in Odisha, India.Contraception and reproductive medicine · 2026Article
- Assessing family planning progress in exemplar countries: development of a conceptual framework and case study methodology.BMJ global health · 2026Review
- Charting paths to sexual well-being: a comprehensive research agenda for fostering sexual health in Europe and beyond.International journal of impotence research · 2026Review
- Predictors of postpartum modern contraceptive use intentions among pregnant women in urban Ghana: a cross-sectional study.The Pan African medical journal · 2026Article
- On-site IUD implementation in a student-run free clinic.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
135 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Family planning is hailed as one of the great public health achievements of the last century, and worldwide acceptance has risen to three-fifths of exposed couples. In many countries, however, uptake of modern contraception is constrained by limited access and weak service delivery, and the burden of unintended pregnancy is still large. This review focuses on family planning's efficacy in preventing unintended pregnancies and their health burden. The authors first describe an epidemiologic framework for reproductive behavior and pregnancy intendedness and use it to guide the review of 21 recent, individual-level studies of pregnancy intentions, health outcomes, and contraception. They then review population-level studies of family planning's relation to reproductive, maternal, and newborn health benefits. Family planning is documented to prevent mother-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus, contribute to birth spacing, lower infant mortality risk, and reduce the number of abortions, especially unsafe ones. It is also shown to significantly lower maternal mortality and maternal morbidity associated with unintended pregnancy. Still, a new generation of research is needed to investigate the modest correlation between unintended pregnancy and contraceptive use rates to derive the full health benefits of a proven and cost-effective reproductive technology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.