Researchers did this study to analyze the provision’s contribution at no cost to users of the 20 µg/day LNG-IUS towards DALY averted over nine years.
The present study analyzed data from 15 030 new users of the LNG-IUS who had the device inserted at 26 Brazilian teaching hospitals. The instruments came from the ICA, a not-for-profit foundation that donates the tools to developing countries for use by low-income women who desire long-term contraception and freely choose to use it.
Fifteen thousand thirty women chose the LNG-IUS as a contraceptive method during the study period. Over the nine years of evaluation, the estimated cumulative contribution of the Brazilian program in DALY averted consisted of 486 live births, 14 cases of combined maternal mortality and morbidity, 143 cases of child mortality, and 410 unsafe abortions.
The study concluded that the LNG-IUS provision at no cost to low-income Brazilian women reduced unwanted pregnancies and probably averted maternal mortality and morbidity, child mortality, and unsafe abortions. Family planning programs, policymakers, and stakeholders based in low-resource settings could take advantage of the information that providing this contraceptive at no cost or an affordable price to a publicly-insured population is an effective policy to help promote women’s health.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/43/3/181
