Assessment of attitude towards use of emergency contraceptives among antenatal women
Keywords:
Emergency contraception, Awareness, Practice, AntenatalAbstract
Background: Despite the wide availability of a range of modern contraceptives, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies continue to be a major problem in most of the developing countries like India. Situations such as unprotected sex, improper use of regular contraceptives, failure of barrier methods and sexual violence often lead to an unwanted pregnancy, which may warrant for unsafe abortions. Introduction of Emergency Contraception (EC) over the counter in India in the recent past can help women to avoid unintended pregnancies.
Methods: The present cross sectional study was designed to assess the awareness, level of knowledge and usage of EC among the women attending antenatal clinic. Systematic random sampling was used to select the participants for the study. 200 married women in age group between 18-35 years were interviewed through a pretested structured questionnaire to collect information on age, education, residential and socioeconomic status, obstetric profile, knowledge and usage of EC.
Results: The average age of women included in the study was 24.2 years ± 4.2. The knowledge and usage of EC among the participants was 11.5 % and 10.5% respectively. Age, education, socio-economic status, religion and parity had the significant role in knowledge and attitude towards EC. Clinician and electronic media were the most important source of information about EC. Knowledge about the brand name, time frame for usage and the side effects of EC were known to 60.8%, 43.4% and 17.9% of the participants respectively. Chemist and general practitioners were the first choice of places for obtaining the EC.
Conclusions: Most importantly, the women who are most likely to need EC and those who are at high risk of an unintended pregnancy but not using any method of contraception have low level of knowledge about emergency contraception. There is a need for sustained efforts by the government and non-government organization including the media to clarify the difference between emergency contraception and medical abortion in order to increase acceptability and willingness to use emergency contraceptive measures.
References
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). PRAMS and unintended pregnancy, 2009. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/PRAMS/UP.htm. Accessed 10 August 2009.
Santelli J, Rochat R, Hatfield-Timajchy K, Gilbert BC, Curtis K, Cabral R, et al. The measurement and meaning of unintended pregnancy. Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2003;35(2):94-101.
Brown S, Eisenberg L. The best intentions. In: Brown S, Eisenberg L, eds. Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families. Washington (DC): National Academy Press; 1995.
Westhoff C. Emergency Contraception. N Engl J Med. 2003;349(19):1830-5.
Kuroki LM, Allsworth JE, Redding CA, Blume JD, Peipert JF. Is a previous unplanned pregnancy a risk factor for a subsequent unplanned pregnancy? Am J Obstet Gynaecol. 2008;199(5):517.
Payakachat N, Ragland D, Houston C. Impact of emergency contraception status on unintended pregnancy: observational data from a women’s health practice. Pharm Pract (Intern). 2010;8(3):173-8
IIPS. National family health survey-2 (NFHS-2), 1998-99, India, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, 2000. Available at: dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FRIND2/FRIND2.pdf
IIPS. National family health survey-2 (NFHS-3), 2005-06, India, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, 2007. Available at: dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FRIND3/FRIND3-Vol1AndVol2.pdf.
Puri C. Emergency contraception. ICMR Bull. 1997;27(3):19-30.
Nayyar A. Increasing access to emergency contraception in India. Health Popul Persp Issues. 2000;23(3):123-33.
Family Planning Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India. Guidelines for administration of emergency contraceptive pills by health care providers, 2008. Available at: http://mohfw.nic.in/NRHM/FP/ECP_Book_Final.pdf.
Puri S, Goe N, Sehagal A, Walia D, Mangat C. Emergency contraception in women of slums in Northern India. J Fam Reprod Health. 2009;3:77-82.
Kokane AM, Khadilkar HA. Knowledge of emergency contraception in women attending MTP center at rural tertiary care hospital in India. Asian J Pharm Health Sci. 2012;2(2):333-5.
Makade KC, Pedhyegurjar M, Pedhyegurjar SB, Kulkarni RN. Study of contraceptive use among married women in a slum in Mumbai. National J Community Med. 2012;3(1):40-3.
Puri S, Bhatia V, Swami HM, Singh A, Sehgal A, Kaur AP. Awareness of emergency contraception among female college students In Chandigarh, India. Indian J Med Sci. 2007;61(6):338-46.
Shelat PR, Hihoriya NH, Kumbar S. Knowledge and attitude towards the use of emergency contraceptive pills among college students. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2012;1(2):77-84.
Lakshmidevi M, Venkatesh S, Saxena RK, Pandey P. Knowledge, experience and opinion on emergency contraception among urban educated women. J Evol Med Dent Sci. 2014;34(3):9039-45.
Kose V, Joshi S. Knowledge of emergency contraception among married women of reproductive age in a rural based teaching hospital of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. JSAFOG. 2012;4(2):106-9.
Thapa S, Rani A, Mishra CP. Knowledge, attitude and belief about contraception in post-partum and post abortal women in a tertiary care centre. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynaecol. 2014 Sep;3(3):533-9.
Chakraborty A, Paul J, Mondal P, Saha M, Seth S, Mitra PS, et al. Assessment of knowledge and practice of contraception among antenatal mothers attending antenatal clinics of a newly developed medical college in Kolkata, West Bengal. Int J Healthcare Biomed Res. 2013;1(4):315-20.
Murarkar SK, Soundale SG. Epidemiological correlates of contraceptive prevalence in married women of reproductive age group in rural area. Natl J Community Med. 2011;2(1):78-81.
Lakshmi MM, Neetha Rai S. Contraceptive practices among reproductive age group of women in Justice K. S. Hegde medical college hospital, Mangalore. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynaecol. 2013;2(1):39-46.
Prateek SS, Saurabh RS. Contraceptive practices adopted by women attending an urban health centre. Afr Health Sci. 2012;12(4):416-21.
Chandra RAK, Kandpal SD, Negi KS. Epidemiological correlates of contraceptive prevalence in rural population of Dehradun district. Indian J Community Med. 2005;30(2):60-2.
Gaur D, Goel MK, Goel M. Contraceptive practices and related factors among females in predominantly rural Muslim area of North India. Intern J World Health Soc Polit. 2008;5(1):3.
Pushpa SP, Venkatesh R, Shivaswamy MS. Study of fertility pattern and contraceptive practices in a rural area- a cross sectional study. Indian J Sci Technol. 2011;4:429-31.
