Spanish researchers have analysed the prevalence of contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter over the last month in 5,141 sexually active women between the ages of 15 and 49 years through Spain's 17 autonomous communities.

“Bearing in mind the individual factors amongst women that determine contraceptive use, living in one autonomous community or another also has an influence,” Dolores Ruiz Munoz, researcher at the Public Health Agency of Barcelona and lead author of the study, said.