Awareness and attitudes towards emergency contraceptive pills among young people in the entertainment places, Vientiane City, Lao PDR

Abstract

BackgroundEmergency Contraception is not officially available to the public sector in Laos. The potential of emergency contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies is well documented in developed countries, but in Laos no studies of ECPs exist. This study aimed to assess knowledge of and attitudes towards emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) in Vientiane, the capital city of the Lao PDR.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 500 young adults in entertainment venues by using the convenience sampling between May to July, 2007. Data were obtained through face-to-face interview. Participants were asked about socio- demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes related to ECPs, and source of information about ECPs. Data analysis was performed with chi-square test and logistic regression (p < .05).ResultsOnly 22.4 percent of respondents had heard of ECPs and of these only 17.9 percent knew the correct time-frame for effective use. Most of the respondents (85%) agreed on the need for ECPs to be available in Laos and 66.8 percent stated that they would use them should the need arise, if they were available. Among those who said they would not use ECPs, 63.8 percent were concerned about possible health effects, or other side effects. Awareness of ECPs was associated with increasing age (OR = 2.78, p = .025) and male sex (OR = 2.91, p = .010).ConclusionsThere is needed to provide effective health education about the method, timing of use, and how to obtain ECPs through both informal, peer channels, and also through formal channels such as health care providers.

Awareness and Attitudes Toward Emergency Contraceptives Among College Students in South India

“…In this study, 85.5 % university students had heard about ECPs compared to 14.3-94 % reported in other studies [1,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Significantly greater proportion of males had heard about ECPs which was similar to findings of a study done in Nepal [11].…”

“…In this study, 30.7 % had a misconception that ECPs were the same as abortion pills in comparison to 35-87.6 % participants as reported in other studies [8,10,13,15,17,19].…”

“…Only one third of the participants knew that ECPs does not prevent STDs which was more than that reported (25 %) in a Nepal study [8]. However, it was lesser than that reported by 95.5 % participants in a Laos study [8,10] 1 % in USA [17], and 82.2 % in a Cameroon study [13]. These are issues which need to be educated to users in order to encourage condom usage as much as possible.…”

“…The correct time frame for contraceptive use was known to 54.4 % participants in comparison to 5.7-83.9 % reported by previous studies [9,10,[12][13][14]17]. This information which would determine effectiveness of ECPs needs to be made very clear to all users.…”

“…Commercial interests have led to marketing of these product on a large scale through mass media. In other studies [10,13,14], informal sources like friends were the major source which are unreliable means of information. The role of healthcare providers as source of information ranged from 8.9 to 19.9 % in other studies in comparison to just 14.3 % in this study which hence needs to be further intensified [9,13,15].…”