ArticleContraception2021
Certainty and intention in pregnancy decision-making: An exploratory study.
Article in Contraception, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Association Between Decision-Making Styles, Personality Traits, and Socio-Demographic Factors in Women Choosing Voluntary Pregnancy Termination: A Cross-Sectional Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Large-Scale Data Harmonization Across Prospective Studies.American journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- "Adoption is just not for me": How abortion patients in Michigan and New Mexico factor adoption into their pregnancy outcome decisions.Contraception: X · 2023Article
- Medication abortion: A perfect solution?Health services research · 2022Article
- Developing and validating the Psychosocial Burden among people Seeking Abortion Scale (PB-SAS).PloS one · 2020Article
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
objectiveAbortion is often characterized as an inherently difficult decision, despite research demonstrating high decision certainty among abortion patients. Minimal research has examined decision certainty among people planning to continue a pregnancy. We examined whether women seeking abortion experience lower decision certainty than those planning to continue pregnancies and whether certainty differs by pregnancy intendedness. STUDY
designWe administered the decisional conflict scale (DCS) to pregnant women (n = 149) at 8 U.S. primary and reproductive health clinics. Using Poisson regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and pregnancy characteristics, we evaluated differences in DCS scores (<25/100 vs ≥25/100) by pregnancy decision and whether pregnancy intention modified the effect of pregnancy decision on certainty.
resultsOver one-half (58%) of respondents planned to have an abortion, 32% to continue the pregnancy, and 10% were unsure. DCS scores were low overall (median 9.4/100; IQR: 1.6, 25.0), indicative of high certainty, and the percentage scoring ≥25/100, reflecting any uncertainty, did not differ by pregnancy decision (23% abortion vs 19% continuing, p = 0.55). In a multivariable model, there was no statistically significant interaction between pregnancy decision (abortion vs continuing pregnancy) and intention. However, the predicted percentage reporting any uncertainty among respondents with intended pregnancies was comparable among those decided on abortion (13%) and continuing the pregnancy (16%). Among those with unintended pregnancies, these figures were 25% among those decided on abortion vs 36% among those continuing.
conclusionLevels of certainty about a pregnancy decision were high and appeared to depend more on whether the pregnancy was intended or unintended than on the pregnancy decision itself. IMPLICATIONS: Similar levels of uncertainty among individuals who decided to have an abortion versus continue a pregnancy challenge the narrative that abortion is a particularly difficult medical and personal decision. The prevalence of some uncertainty among respondents continuing pregnancies suggests voluntary options counseling may be useful for some patients in prenatal care settings.
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