Hormonal Contraception and Hemoglobin Levels in Urban Malawi: A Longitudinal Analysis

Background Studies have highlighted potential non-contraceptive benefits from women’s use of hormonal, reversible contraceptive methods. Given the physiological pathways through which hormonal contraception may interact with menstruation, a growing body of work has documented the extent to which hormonal method use might be associated with increased hemoglobin levels and reductions in the risk of anemia in women. While these findings are promising, the scope for causal inference from these studies is restricted by their cross-sectional design, which limits the extent to which bias from individual-level confounding can be mitigated. Methods We assess the relationship between women’s use of hormonal contraception and their risk of anemia using three years of annual woman-level panel data on 2143 women from urban Malawi controlling for individual woman fixed effects. We compare our panel results with cross-sectional estimates from the same sample. Results We find that hormonal method use is associated with increased levels of hemoglobin in women, though the effects are different for different hormonal methods.. Adoption of an injectable is associated with a 3.7 g/cL increase, and adoption of an implant a 5.7 g/cL increase, in hemoglobin levels. Our estimates are consistent across cross-sectional and panel model specifications, suggesting that existing cross-sectional estimates may be reliable. Conclusions Our findings highlight potential health benefits from hormonal contraceptive use that extend beyond pregnancy prevention. These benefits, in turn, have significant implications as to how women are counseled on contraception both within family planning and nutrition programs. Trial Registration This trial was registered at the American Economics Association Registry for randomized controlled trials on May 7, 2015 (AEARCTR-0000697) and at the Registry for International Development Impact Evaluations (RIDIE) on May 28, 2015 (RIDIE-STUDY-ID-556784ed86956).