A critical element of a positive family planning care experience is for the client to be able to ask all of their questions and get complete answers from their provider. In fact, in a recent Child Trends survey, 75 percent of family planning clients cited this person-centered approach when asked what had contributed to their positive care visit. High-quality family planning care is both person-centered (meaning it centers individual clients’ preferences during care visits) and offered in settings with efficient infrastructure for ensuring client access and comfort (such as scheduling, record-keeping, and supportive front desk staff). Understanding the most important aspects of a positive or negative family planning visit experience can help health centers adopt strategies to improve service delivery.
Child Trends surveyed 1,016 individuals assigned female at birth who had recently received family planning care and were income-eligible for publicly funded services.[1] Of the 893 respondents who reported a prior sexual and reproductive health (SRH) visit, over three quarters (78%) reported a prior visit they considered “mostly positive” while 19 percent reported a “mostly negative” visit. Respondents were also asked to report on the most important characteristics (up to three) that made their visit experience mostly positive or mostly negative; characteristics were related to interactions with providers and features of the clinic or the appointment. Survey respondents also provided write-in answers that described, in more detail, the factors that made their visit positive or negative; figures 1 and 2 include select quotes that illustrate the top reasons for positive and negative visits. (The full distribution of categorical responses can be found in the Appendix.)
Among responses related to provider-patient interactions (Figure 1), clients characterized positive SRH visits as those in which the provider/staff:
Visits that the clients described as negative were characterized by clients as those in which the provider/staff:
When asked about clinic- or appointment-related factors impacting their experiences (see Figure 2), clients characterized positive SRH visits as those in which:
Visits that clients described as negative were those in which:
The common characteristics of both positive and negative visits highlight the importance of person-centered care in family planning settings, which includes respectful and nonjudgmental provider-patient interactions that center clients’ preferences and provide sufficient information about care options and possible follow-up services. These findings also highlight the need for a positive clinic environment (e.g., friendly and helpful staff) and appointments that allow enough time to include person-centered counseling and provide desired tests and treatments.
This publication was supported by the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,548,353 with 100 percent funded by OPA/OASH/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by OPA/OASH/HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit https://opa.hhs.gov/.
Welti, K., & Manlove, J. (2024). Person-center care elicits more positive responses from family planning clients. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/5821z9314t
The authors would like to thank Ria Shelton and Catherine Nichols for their visual design work. We would also like to acknowledge Emma Pliskin and Jane Finocharo for their data analysis work.
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