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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of pregnancies conceived within 18 months of a previous birth — FP‑02 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About this objective  |  Methodology  |  History

About this objective

Data

Data Source:  National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), CDC/NCHS

National baseline: 31.6 percent of pregnancies were conceived within 18 months of a previous birth, as reported in 2022-23

National target: 26.0 percent

Numerator
Number of women aged 15 to 49 years whose most recent pregnancy (in the last 5 years) was conceived within 18 months of a previous live birth.
Denominator
Number of women aged 15 to 49 with at least 2 pregnancies.
National target-setting method
Minimal statistical significance
National target-setting method details
Minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline.
National target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. The standard error was used to calculate a target based on minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline.
National data collection frequency
Periodic

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2022-2023 National Survey of Family Growth:

Numerator:
inDATECON1-16*: a recode that defines the century month for the pregnancy conception date of the most recent pregnancy. The recode is constructed from DATEND and PRGLNGTH for completed pregnancies and PRGLNGTH and date of survey for current pregnancies. inDATEND1-16* : a recode that defines the century month for the pregnancy end date using computed variable cmpregend (constructed from BB-4m/y pregend_m, pregend_y). OUTCOM1-16 : a recode that defines a single outcome to each pregnancy using raw variables PREGOUT.

Denominator:
: PREGNUM : a recode that defines total number of pregnancies based on NUMPREGS NUMPREGS: BB-1. (Including this pregnancy,) how many times have you been pregnant in your life? PREGEND_M/PREGEND_Y : BB-4m. In what month and year did this pregnancy end/was this baby born? PRGLNGTH: Recode indicating gestational length in weeks*. PREGOUT: BB-2. Thinking of your [pregfill] pregnancy, in which of the ways shown on Card 9 did the pregnancy end?
  1. Miscarriage
  2. Stillbirth
  3. Abortion
  4. Ectopic or tubal pregnancy
  5. Live birth
*Restricted used variable to be used in the RDC.

Methodology notes

A female is considered to have had a pregnancy within 18 months of a previous birth if she had at least 2 pregnancies and the 2nd most previous pregnancy ended in a live birth. The most recent pregnancy can be a current pregnancy. The interval between the most recent pregnancy and previous live birth is derived from the delivery date of the live birth and the date of conception for the most recent pregnancy's conception in the last 5 years.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2026, following a redesign of the NSFG survey, the baseline for this objective was revised from 33.8% as reported in 2015-2017 to 31.6% in 2022-2023. Using the original target-setting method, the target was also updated from 26.9% to 26.0%.