A Web-Based Event History Calendar Approach for Measuring Contraceptive Use Behavior

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Public Health
• Survey Methodology

Background:

• Event history calendars (EHCs) are crucial for understanding life event timing and relationships.
• Traditional EHCs are often administered in-person or by phone, limiting self-administration.
• Web surveys offer privacy and timeliness benefits, reducing social desirability bias.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a web application for collecting contraceptive method use histories.
• To assess the feasibility and data quality of a self-administered web-based EHC.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel web application for calendar-based measurement of contraceptive use.
• Comparison of data from the web application (online panels) with data from a face-to-face survey (National Survey of Family Growth).

Main Results:

• The web application successfully collected data on contraceptive method use histories.
• Data collected via the web application showed comparability with benchmark face-to-face survey data.
• The study demonstrated the utility of web-based EHCs for self-administered data collection.

Conclusions:

• Web-based event history calendars are a viable and effective tool for collecting sensitive health behavior data.
• This technology enhances the collection of family planning and fertility data, offering advantages in privacy and efficiency.
• Future research can leverage this tool to improve understanding of reproductive health behaviors.