Variety between regions
We found that slightly more women from western China adopted
contraception—in particular IUDs—than their eastern and central
counterparts. These results may be due in part to more participants
having two or more children in the western region than in the eastern
and central regions. The desire for limiting births may also be stronger
for women with more children. Somewhat surprisingly, the cumulative
rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion were significantly higher in
the western region relative to eastern and central regions. One possible
reason for this is that the time of contraceptive initiation may be
later for women in the western region compared with counterparts in
eastern and central regions of China. However, further studies are
needed to elucidate the differences in contraceptive behaviours and
subsequent pregnancy among women living in various geographic regions of
China.