Trends in the use of oral contraceptives among adolescents and young women in Spain

We aimed to determine the prevalence of consumption of oral contraceptives (OCs) among adolescents and young women living in Spain and to identify the factors associated with this consumption. We performed a cross-sectional study on the consumption of OCs by women aged 15-30 years residing in Spain. We used secondary individualized data from the 2006 (n = 2513) and 2012 (n = 1530) Spanish National Health Surveys. The dependent variable was the use of OCs in the previous 2 weeks. Independent variables included sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidity, lifestyle, and healthcare resource utilization. The prevalence of OC consumption was analysed by investigating the changes observed between 2006 and 2012. We used multivariate logistic regression to identify the independent factors associated with OC use in each year. In 2006, 14.42 % of women reported using OCs; this percentage dropped to 10.21 % in 2012 (p