Suchergebnisse

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is the deadliest public health emergency in the twenty-first century. To mitigate the rapid spread of the virus, institutions around the globe, including higher education, instituted infection control measures such as social distancing and restricted movements with virtual/remote work and learning environments. These changes, including the pandemic-related stressors, are associated with poor mental health among college students. However, student-mothers may encounter an aggravated psychological impact of the pandemic because of their competing and challenging intersecting roles. Multipronged strategies and targeted-mental health services that consider the needs of student-mothers, their children, and families are encouraged to mitigate the pandemic's impact. Doing so has important implications for public health, policy, and research.

Contraceptive use is deemed one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century because its benefits are universally acknowledged as a cornerstone for reducing global maternal morbidity and mortality. However, although the adoption of the Affordable Care Act in the United States (US) enhanced access to preventive health services, as well as increased contraceptive use, a considerable proportion of reproductive-aged women still have unmet reproductive health needs. Current data indicates gaps in contraceptive use patterns in the US, particularly among low-income women and those from racial/ethnic and gender minority subgroups, necessitating further investigation using an ecological approach. This narrative literature review aims to investigate the current perspective of contraceptive use in the US using the social-ecological model (SEM). Based on SEM levels, barriers to contraceptive use entail the following levels: individual (e.g., misbelief about the side effects of contraceptives), interpersonal (e.g., influence of family and friends), institutional (e.g., lack of training on how to use different types of contraceptives), community (e.g., societal stigma and shame), and policy (e.g., restrictive federal and states policies). Access to contraceptives for women is a system-level issue that necessitates consideration for multilevel strategies by key stakeholders to improve contraceptive uptake among vulnerable populations.