Back to Surveys and Comparative Reports

Highlights from “Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: A Comparative Report”

The Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ORC/Macro International, funded by United States Agency for International Development, have recently completed a comparative analysis of data from 16 health surveys conducted in 12 countries in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The surveys, which were conducted from the early 1990s through 2001, asked a series of health and demographic questions of women of reproductive age.

The countries included in this report are, by region:

Among the highlights of this report are:

	Figure 1: Fertility rates were well below replacement level (about 2.1 children per couple) in Romania, Ukraine, and urban areas of Russia; somewhat higher (but still below replacement) for Moldova and the Czech Republic; close to replacement level in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan; and above replacement in the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
	Figure 2: The highest rates of abortion in the region were in the Caucasus where, at current age-specific rates, a woman would have more than three abortions during her lifetime in Azerbaijan and Georgia and more than two abortions in Armenia. Rates for the European region varied from 1.3 (Moldova) to 2.3 (urban areas of Russia) abortions in a lifetime, and in Central Asia from 0.6 (Uzbekistan) to 1.5 (Kyrgyz Republic).
	Figure 3: Almost all women in the region have heard of at least one modern method of contraception and in most countries over half of married women are using a contraceptive method, but many use traditional methods with high failure rates, particularly in the Caucasus region. Contraceptive prevalence was highest in the Eastern European region and lowest in the Caucasus. Modern method use was greatest in Central Asia. In areas with greater prevalence of modern contraceptive method use, abortion was less common.
	Figure 4: More than 70% of women said they wanted more information about contraception in every country except Georgia, where 53% wanted such information. Between half and 90% of women in the countries surveyed felt that abortion presents a high level of risk to a woman’s health.
	Figure 5: The percentage of women who received no prenatal care during their recent pregnancies ranged from a low of less than 1% in the Czech Republic to 30% in Azerbaijan. Except in the Caucasus countries, births outside of health facilities are relatively rare– 2% or less in Eastern Europe, between 2% and 6% in Central Asia, but in the Caucasus the range was 8% to 26%.
	Figure 6: Between 58% and 93% of sexually experienced women in the countries surveyed reported ever having a routine gynecologic exam, but only 21% to 70% had been examined in the previous 12 months.
	Figure 7: Smoking  prevalence varied from 1% in Azerbaijan to 30% in Romania, and frequent drinking (at least one alcoholic drink daily or nearly every day) ranged from 1% in the Czech Republic to 28% in Romania.
	Figure 8: Almost all women in the region had heard of HIV/AIDS, with over 90% reporting they had heard of HIV/AIDS, except in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (74% and 73% respectively). (Knowledge of other sexually-transmitted infections is somewhat lower, ranging from 58% to 99%.) However, only slightly more than half of women in almost each country knew that a person could be infected with HIV and not have symptoms, and in Azerbaijan just 21% knew HIV infection could be asymptomatic. Knowledge of how HIV is spread, however, was weak and some mistaken ideas of transmission routes, such as through sharing objects and donating blood, were fairly widespread.
	Figure 9: The percentage of babies ever breastfed in Central Asia and the Caucasus (where detailed questions about breastfeeding were asked) was high, between 89% and 97%, but the duration of exclusive breastfeeding
	(Figure 10) was short, generally under a month. Breastfeeding in combination with other sources of nutrition continued, on average, for nine months or more.
	Figure 11: The prevalence of anemia among women in Central Asia and Armenia and Azerbaijan was far higher than is typically found in developed countries, ranging from 12% in Armenia to 60% in Uzbekistan.
	Figure 12: Infant mortality rates were presented for the eight countries where questions on the topic were asked, and reported rates were found to be lowest in Romania (32 infant deaths per 1,000 live births) and highest in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (74 per 1,000).
	Figure 13: Data on the sexual behavior of young adults was gathered in seven countries, and reveal regional differences. One quarter to three fourths of young adult women (ages 15 to 24) in the Eastern European countries reported premarital sexual experience, compared with less than 2% of women in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Women marry earlier in rural areas and are more likely to be married at the time of their first sexual experience.
	Figure 14 Between 26% and 58% of women in Eastern European countries reported that they or their partner used contraception at the time of first premarital intercourse.
	Figure 15: In four countries, women were asked their opinions about sexuality education. Between 75% and 98% of all women felt that sex education should be taught in the school, and between 56% and 88% aged 15–24 reported having discussed at least one sexual topic with a parent
	Figure 16: before the age of 18. However, fewer than 43% of all women in Romania or Moldova and less than one-fourth in Azerbaijan and Georgia knew the most likely time to get pregnant during the menstrual cycle.
	Figure 17: In six countries women were asked about their experience of verbal and physical abuse. In five of the countries, 14% to 29% of ever-married women reported at least one episode of physical abuse by a partner during their lifetime. Those who had witnessed or experienced parental abuse were almost three times as likely or twice as likely, respectively, to have experienced intimate partner violence as an adult. In three countries where the question was asked, 3% to 10% of ever-married women reported forced sexual intercourse by a current or former partner.

For more information, review the eight page policy brief, in English. http://www.prb.org/pdf/ReproductiveHealthTrendsEE.pdf.* ( PDF 258KB)

To learn more about PDF files and to download PDF files, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader software, which is available free of charge from Adobe. The HTML version alters the format of the original printed document. Using the PDF version will preserve the document's formatting and graphics.

Page last reviewed: 9/30/08
Page last modified: 4/17/06
Content source: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion