Status Report Methodology
This report documents trends and rates of several reproductive health indicators: unplanned pregnancies and contraceptive need, teen births, chlamydia, and HIV/AIDS. Our team compiled incidence rates (new cases), prevalence rates (existing cases), and trends over time for these indicators on state, city, and town levels, and by age and race subsets, where possible. Unplanned pregnancy data was obtained from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is administered statewide by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) Health Survey Program. Data for this indicator is available every other survey year, beginning in 1998 and ending in 2006. The most recent information regarding state-level contraceptive need, also from 2006, came to us from the Guttmacher Institute; their methodologies are available online. Teen birth, chlamydia, and HIV/AIDS data was obtained from public data sets in the Massachusetts Community Health Information Profile (MassCHIP) – an information service developed by MDPH. We used data from 2006, the most recent available. Both health care providers and clinical laboratories are mandated by law to report cases of HIV and chlamydia to the MDPH. Boston neighborhood data was obtained from the Boston Public Health Commission Research Office’s 2008 Health of Boston Report. This report relies upon 2006 data gathered by MDPH. Further information is available online.
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