62 percent of U.S. women use contraception

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HYATTSVILLE, Md., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Sixty-two percent of U.S. women of reproductive age used contraception, mostly birth control and sterilization, during 2006-2010, officials say.

Jo Jones, William Mosher and Kimberly Daniels of the Division of Vital Statistics, National Health Statistics Reports -- part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- said their report presented national estimates of contraceptive use among women of childbearing ages 15-44 from 2006 to 2010.

As part of a larger study, The National Survey of Family Growth, interviews were conducted by female interviewers in the homes of 22,682 women and men ages 15–44 during 2006 to 2010, but for this report the data was taken from the interviews of 12,279 women.

The National Survey of Family Growth was designed to provide national data that supplement and complement the National Vital Statistics data on U.S. registered births, by collecting data on the factors that affect those rates -- including sexual activity, marriage, divorce, cohabitation, contraceptive use and infertility.

Of the women using a contraceptive in the month of the interview, 10.6 million women, or 28 percent, used birth control, while 10.2 million women, or 27 percent, said they used sterilization.

Use of intrauterine devices as a current method was used by 5.6 percent and 11 percent of the women reported not currently using a method of contraception and were at risk of unintended pregnancy.