AWARENESS OF WOMEN AND RELATED FACTORS ON EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

Abstract

Objective: Unintended pregnancy is an important public health problem all over the world due to its negative effects on mother and child health. The most common causes of unintended pregnancies are nonuse or misuse of contraceptive methods. The aim of this study was to determine the recognition frequency of emergency contraceptive methods among women and related factors of this situation. Material and Method: This descriptive study was conducted at a research and education hospital's obstetrical outpatient clinics. All of the women aged 18-49 years attend to these clinics due to any health problem were enrolled to the study. Data was collected by a questionnaire generated by the investigators and p values under 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Fifty-five point five percent of 614 women enrolled to the study were using modern contraceptive methods and 37.9% of these were faced to unintended pregnancy at least one time through out their sexual life. 54.5% of these unintended pregnancies have been resulted with deliveries. The rate of unintended pregnancy was higher in women with higher pregnancy count. Forty-eight point nine percent of participants thought that it is impossible to prevent pregnancy after an unprotected sexual intercourse. The rate of women which were aware of at least one synonymous expressions of emergency contraception was 27.9%. Forty-five of these women had known the exact meaning of emergency contraception. The emergency contraception usage rate was 1.1% in general population but this was 7.4% in women who were aware of emergency contraception. Conclusion: It is possible to decrease unintended pregnancies by using emergency contraception properly. However, the knowledge of women about emergency contraception is inadequate. Therefore, education programmes should be conducted.