Increased Discussion of Development Issues

This initiative, along with other activities conducted as part of the larger Women's Reproductive Health Program (WRHP), resulted in increased family planning counseling for women in the postpartum and postabortion period. Over half of those in the intervention group in Ekaterinburg (58.2%) talked to a doctor or nurse about family planning after giving birth (as compared to 44.2% of those in the comparison group in Perm); 21.1% of those exposed to the intervention (as compared to 9.1% of those not exposed) left the hospital after their most recent delivery with modern methods of contraception or a prescription.

Similarly, 56.1% in the intervention group talked to a doctor or nurse about family planning following an abortion (as compared to 45.2% of those not exposed to the campaign); and 29% in the intervention group as compared to 21.7% of those in Perm left the hospital post-abortion with a modern contraception method or a prescription.

Practices

Almost half of women surveyed who did not use contraception in 1996 in Ekaterinburg (the intervention site) adopted a modern contraceptive method by 1998, as compared to one-third of non-users in 1996 in Perm, the comparison site. Further, the number of those using contraceptives increased from 46% to 58.1 % in Ekaterinburg in the two years between surveys, as compared to an increase from 43% to 47.9% in Perm during that period.

In addition to these survey results, statistics collected from Ekaterinburg as well as other regions (oblasts) show dramatic increases in clinic attendance in the two-year period: 10% in Tver oblast family planning clinics, 12% in Ivanovo, and 50% in Ekaterinburg. There were also longer contraceptive continuation rates: 78.5% of those who were exposed to the intervention and who were using contraceptives in 1996 continued contraceptive use in 1998, as compared to 67.9% of those not exposed to the intervention.

Source

Communication Impact, April 2000, Number 9, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.

For full evaluation and more information, contact:

Lisa Cobb, JHU/CCP, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USATel.: 410-659-6300

Fax: 410-659-6266

JHU/CCP site.

lcobb@jhuccp.org

OR

Michele Berdy, Maly Gnezdnikovsky, per. 7, Korporatsia Video - film Kom. 314, Moscow, 103877 Russia

Tel.: 7-095-229-8409

Fax: 7-095-232-5480

maberdy@glasnet.ru