Objective: to analyze the current situation of some aspects of reproductive health in population covered by the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), based on the results of the National Survey of Coverage of Integrated Health Programs (ENCOPREVENIMSS) 2003.
Material and methods: we collected and analyzed data on fertility, contraceptive practice and prenatal and puerperal care. For this purpose, we made specific files as follows: 5823 adolescents from 15 to 19 years old, 16,275 men from 20 to 59 years old and 16 866 women from 20 to 49 years old, of the total sample of 79,797 questionnaires of ENCOPREVENIMSS 2003.
Results: the specific fertility rate in adolescent females was registered in 40 live births for every thousand women in this age group. About 70% of men and 41.7% of women said they used some kind of contraceptive method in their first intercourse. The prevalence of contraceptive use among female adolescents was 56% and among women from 20 to 49 years old, it was 76.5%, with the largest proportions of definitive or high-continuity contraceptive methods: 50.1% for tubal occlusion and 19.9% for intrauterine device. Global fertility rate for the whole population covered by IMSS was 2.56. Prenatal care coverage was 97.1% in adolescents and 98.2% in women from 20 to 49 years old.
Conclusions: the data of ENCOPREVENIMSS 2003 confirm a high prevalence of contraceptive use in female population covered by IMSS, very similar to what was observed in other national surveys and in the population covered by IMSS. Besides, women attending IMSS show a reduction of fertility that gets them closer to demographic replacement rates.