Pregnancy occurrence, intendedness, and outcomes among U.S. females with and without disability, 2011-2019

Females with disability have higher risk for unintended pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes compared to those without disability. Yet, prior research has not considered within-group and between-group differences by disability status and age.

Assess nationally representative patterns and compare prevalence of pregnancy occurrence, intendedness, and outcomes across disability status and age among females aged 15-44.

We analyzed pooled National Survey of Family Growth (2011-2019) data using designed-based F-tests to provide nationally representative estimates and modified Poisson regression to compare differences across disability and age-group of pregnancy occurrence, intendedness, and outcomes.

Among females aged 15-44, females with (59.9%) and without (59.6%) disability were equally as likely to become pregnant in the last five years, but our bivariate and multivariate analyses showed females with disability reported higher prevalence of unintended pregnancy, non-live births, and miscarriage. These patterns persisted for females aged 26-44. Among females aged 15-25, females with disability had higher prevalence of non-live births and miscarriage. However, compared to females with disability aged 26-44, females with disability aged 15-25 had higher prevalence of unintended pregnancy and miscarriage but lower prevalence of stillbirth.

Our findings add to the literature on pregnancy occurrence, intendedness, and outcomes, providing insights to differences in the reproductive life course through our disability and age stratified analyses. These findings can help direct public health, clinical practice, and educational interventions to address higher rates of unintended pregnancy and non-live births, particularly miscarriage, for females with disability with consideration for differences across the age spectrum.