Patients’ Emergency Contraception Comprehension, Usage, and View of the Emergency Department Role for Emergency Contraception

Abstract

Female Emergency Department (ED) patients were surveyed to determine their comprehension of the concept of emergency contraception (EC), to assess how often they had used EC in comparison to other forms of contraception, and to learn which patients want the ED to provide EC services. Most of the 761 respondents were aged < 35 years (62.1%), never married (42.9%), had been pregnant at least once (70.2%), had never had an abortion (76.1%), had never used EC (90.6%), and had sex with a man within the past month (70.7%). Respondents were 2.5 times more likely to have had an abortion than to have used EC; 85.3% could not correctly answer two questions that assessed comprehension of the concept of EC; 43.1% wanted the ED to offer EC, 55.6% to provide information about EC, and 52.6% to refer patients for EC. Younger patients, those who attended religious services infrequently, patients who had ever used EC, and those at risk of pregnancy were more likely to want the ED to provide EC services.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, and Determinants Emergency Contraceptive Use among Women Seeking Abortion Services in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

“…Globally, use of EC is relatively low. In the United States usage has been reported as 9.4%, in South Africa as 4% and in Iran as 5.2% [4] , [5] , [6] . In addition, studies have showed that knowledge, and attitude on emergency contraception among women are limited [7] .…”

Consumer attitudes towards and satisfaction with emergency contraception counselling: experience from clinic and retail pharmacy settings

“…Previous studies conducted in a hospital emergency department showed that face‐to face EC counselling is significantly desired over no counselling or watching a video [4,6]. However, face‐to‐face counselling can be perceived as time‐consuming which may potentially obscure the importance of EC counselling.…”

“…Now that non‐prescription EC is available, users could benefit from pharmacist counselling in addition to the consumer labelling information to ensure effective and appropriate use. Previous literature showed that some potential EC users demonstrated limited knowledge [3,4]. The Women's Health Practice and Research Network of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy embraces broadening EC access and addresses the role of pharmacists as educators for EC users [5]…”

Emergency Contraception Counseling in a Retail Pharmacy Setting

“…Additionally, the deregulation does nothing to correct the existing misinformation about EC among potential users which has been documented in previous studies. 8 –13…”