Appraising emergency contraceptives knowledge and use among female youth corp members in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Emergency Contraception (EC) will help forestall unintended pregnancies, following an unprotected sexual intercourse or failure of regular family planning methods. EC knowledge is essential for every woman in the reproductive age group, especially single women who are unable to abstain from unprotected sex. Nevertheless, this knowledge and the utilization of this essential reproductive health product is poor among women across the globe. The female NYSC member of Nigeria stand a greater risk of unintended pregnancies, but little or no attention has been paid to this. Objectives:The present study is informed by the necessity to asses among female NYSC members' knowledge and utilization of EC and come out with information that may help the public and policy makers in fighting unintended pregnancies and its consequences in Nigeria.Methods: 181 self-structured, validated questionnaires were distributed among consenting female NYSC members systematically drawn from the 23 Local Government Areas of Sokoto State. SPSS version 20.0 statistical package was used to manage the database.Results: 22.8% of the respondents were found to have good knowledge of EC. Only 44.4% of this group believed it is morally alright to use EC. 39.5% of the respondents that confirmed being involved in an act that required EC ever used it. We also found that tribe/ ethnicity and geopolitical zones of respondents influenced their EC knowledge (χ 2 =8.505, p=0.037 and χ 2 =17.839, p=0.003, respectively). Conclusion:To address unintended pregnancies and the consequences among our young female graduates who stand a huge risk in this respect, formal sex education, advance provision of EC services and handy information strategies such as handbills on EC need be encouraged.