They reviewed outpatient medical records for women living with HIV aged 18–30 years old seen in one of two university-affiliated HIV-subspecialty clinics in Birmingham, Alabama between July 2015 and June 2016. They selected an age-matched sample of women living without HIV seen in one of two university-affiliated non-HIV primary care clinics as the comparator group and focused their analysis on women with a documented discussion of contraception in the clinic. For women with more than one clinic visit during the 1 year study period, the most recent visit was used for analysis. Multinominal and binary logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with contraception use and models were adjusted for HIV status.

This study included 197 women (58 HIV-positive, 139 HIV-negative). Short-acting contraception methods were the most common methods used by women with (41.4%) and without HIV. LARC use was 14% among women with HIV and 32% among women without HIV. Contraception use predictors included: HIV status, mental health comorbidities, obesity, and a number of pregnancies.

Documented contraceptive method use among 18–30-year-old women seen in clinics in urban Alabama varied by HIV status. Women with HIV were less likely to use LARC methods compared to women without HIV.