Attitudes and Decision-making After Pregnancy Testing Study

The ADAPT Study is a longitudinal observational cohort study examining women's pregnancy preferences, pregnancy decision-making processes, and the effects of less preferred (commonly called "unintended") pregnancy on women's lives. This study will enroll and follow prospectively an Underlying Cohort (UC) of women who are not pregnant at baseline. The study will measure the degree to which participants desire to avoid pregnancy multiple times over the course of the year and capture incident pregnancies as they occur over time. Participants experiencing new pregnancies during the one-year UC will be transferred into a new cohort, the Pregnancy and Match Cohort (PMC); these women will be followed over the course of their pregnancy decision-making and health care-seeking to document these processes. In addition, they will be followed through their pregnancies and giving birth to investigate differences in health, well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes associated with carrying a pregnancy to term based on the participant's pre- and post-pregnancy preference about the pregnancy. Finally, a cohort of non-pregnant women from the UC, matched on desire to avoid pregnancy and time at risk of pregnancy, will be followed as part of the PMC. The study will compare the health, well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes of women with new pregnancies and new births to those in the non-pregnant group to assess the effect of pregnancy itself on women.

The ADAPT study has the following aims:

Aim 1: Assess the factors associated with women's pregnancy preferences, how preferences change over time, and their associations with contraceptive use, incident pregnancy, and feelings about the pregnancy after discovery (Underlying Cohort)

Aim 2: Investigate the options that women consider when they become pregnant and the factors that influence their pregnancy decision-making and ability to access desired reproductive health care and services (prenatal, abortion, adoption) (Study A)

Aim 3a: Examine the effects of giving birth from a less preferred (or "unintended") pregnancy, measured prospectively on a continuum, as compared to a more preferred pregnancy, on women's health and well-being (Study B1)

Aim 3b: Examine the effects of experiencing pregnancy and birth on women's health and well-being, as compared to not experiencing pregnancy (Study B2)

This is a social science, behavioral study and does not use clinical data or biological markers.

The ADAPT Study is a longitudinal observational cohort study. The study has four components, each corresponding to a study aim: 1) Underlying Cohort (Aim 1); 2) Pregnancy and Match Cohort, Study A (Aim 2); 3) Pregnancy and Match Cohort, Study B1 (Aim 3a); and 4) Pregnancy and Match Cohort, Study B2 (Aim 3b).

This ADAPT study will recruit an "Underlying Cohort" (UC) of approximately 2,200 English or Spanish-speaking women, ages 15-34, who are not pregnant (or are terminating a pregnancy) and who are seeking care at designated primary and reproductive health care facilities in four states (see Eligibility Criteria). Participants will be followed up to a year as a part of the UC. At the UC baseline and follow-up surveys conducted every 6 weeks, participants will complete a psychometrically validated measure of prospective preferences and feelings about a potential pregnancy, the Desire to Avoid Pregnancy (DAP) scale. Analyses of UC data will examine the degree to which DAP scores change over time, as well as the relationships between DAP score and contraceptive use, pregnancy, feelings about incident pregnancies after they occur, collected at follow-up surveys.

Participants experiencing new pregnancies during the one-year UC will be transferred into a new cohort, the Pregnancy and Match Cohort (PMC), and will be followed for two years. In the PMC, participants will complete 8 surveys at: PMC baseline (right after reporting a new pregnancy), 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months. Surveys will capture the pregnancy options participants consider (raising child, abortion, adoption), health care and services participants seek (prenatal, abortion, adoption), services obtained and pregnancy outcome. Analyses will examine the factors influencing decision-making and ability to obtain desired care/services, including state sociopolitical environment around reproductive health.

PMC participants will also be a part of PMC-Study B1, in which they will be followed through the course of their pregnancies and childbirth to investigate health, well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes. All PMC surveys will include measures of stress and mental health; well-being; socioeconomics and employment; educational goals and attainment; alcohol, tobacco and drug use; physical health; and intimate partner violence so that individual trajectories of these outcomes will be available over time. Surveys administered after the birth of a child will also assess birth, maternal and child outcomes, including prematurity, low birth weight, breast-feeding, post-partum depression, maternal bonding, and child development. Study B1 will investigate how these outcomes differ based on the woman's prospective preference about the pregnancy, as well as her attitudes and feelings about it upon discovery. Analyses will compare outcomes among women giving birth by pregnancy preferences level; separately, analyses will also include the women who experienced miscarriage or terminated pregnancies. The hypothesis is that women with higher DAP scores will experience poorer outcomes after pregnancy and birth than those with higher DAP scores.

Finally, PMC-Study B2 will examine the effect of pregnancy itself on health and well-being outcomes. Throughout the UC as new pregnancies occur, a cohort, frequency matched on pregnancy preference score and time at risk of pregnancy, will also be followed as part of the PMC. Non-pregnant matches who experience pregnancy within a year of enrollment will themselves enter the pregnancy cohort and be assigned a non-pregnant match for the remainder of their time in the PMC. Analyses will compare the health, well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes of women with new pregnancies (and, separately, new births) to those the non-pregnant group to assess the effect of pregnancy itself on women. Analyses will account for the interaction between pregnancy preferences and pregnancy. The hypothesis is that experiencing a less preferred pregnancy (higher DAP score) will result in poorer health outcomes than avoiding a less preferred pregnancy.

Research activities will be conducted and coordinated by trained University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research associates. Staff members at recruitment sites will not be engaged in the research. Data collection will involve completing confidential self-administered surveys using secure electronic systems (i.e., Qualtrics) or phone interviews over the course of the study. Participants will be followed for up to one year in the UC; those who transfer to the PMC will be followed for between 2-3 years overall. Participants will be remunerated with gift cards after each survey.