The East Tennessee State University Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in Womenâs Health (CARE Womenâs Health) is studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on contraceptive services in health department clinics and federally qualified health centers (FQHC).
Before the arrival of the pandemic, CARE Womenâs Health, housed in the ETSU College of Public Health, had been working with clinical partners in South Carolina and Alabama on ongoing research related to reproductive health. In early 2020, the center planned to launch a survey to collect data from family planning clinics across both states.
âWe had plans for our survey, but like everyone else, we had to adjust those plans due to COVID-19,â said Dr. Kate Beatty, core faculty for CARE Womenâs Health and principal investigator of the clinic studies. âOur partners were on the front lines of facing COVID-19 and were shifting their way of doing business. And because we had to pause our research here at the university in the early months of COVID-19, we saw it as an opportunity and updated our data collection to include questions looking specifically at the impact of COVID-19 on their work.â