Usefulness of Home Pregnancy Testing

Once pregnancy is recognized, most women seek prompt prenatal care and try to stop risk behaviors. Unfortunately, women with unintended pregnancies do not recognize their pregnancies promptly, and inadvertently continue risk behaviors into the vulnerable early pregnancy weeks. Home pregnancy testing is a rapid and inexpensive means of pregnancy diagnosis. The objective of this study is to determine whether women in a Medicaid population at risk for unintended pregnancy will keep a home pregnancy test on hand and (if necessary) use it appropriately

Inclusion criteria

• aged 18 to 34 year old female,
• sexually active,
• not pregnant,
• not desiring pregnancy,
• not surgically sterile,
• intercourse at least once in the past 6 months without using effective contraception (hormonal or barrier or male vasectomy)
• receiving Medicaid OR child on Medicaid OR Medicaid paid for prev. preg
• understands written/spoken English enough to give informed consent and respond to survey

Exclusion criteria

• fails to meet inclusion criteria