Data collected from two community family planning services are used to discuss the characteristics of users of emergency contraception (EC).
To investigate the characteristics of women attending for emergency contraception.
A descriptive survey design was used to collect data. Questionnaires were completed over a 4-week period. Data were analysed using SPSS.
Community family planning services in South West Surrey and Newham, East London.
Consenting women aged 14-44 years attending for emergency contraception (n = 171).
Description of the users, the current episode and contact with contraceptive services were analysed by age.
The age range was 14-37 years (mean 20.2 years). A majority were smokers. Of the women, 97.7% attended the clinic within the 72-hour time frame for issuing oral EC, however only 4% came within 12 hours of intercourse; 55% said that they had used contraception. Condom breakage was the commonest reason for failure. Reasons for not using contraception included getting 'carried away' (35%), not having condoms available (22%) and having drunk alcohol (13%). Of the sample 55.6% were previous users of EC.
The study demonstrates a high incidence of sexual risk taking and need for EC, especially amongst smokers and drinkers. The message that soonest is best still requires promotion. Providers of EC must co-ordinate their services to ensure access within the 12-hour time frame in a local area.
Health professionals need to ensure that clients have appropriate information about EC and regular contraceptive methods and that user friendly provision is widely available.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 March 2021.
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#6,093,186
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Outputs from BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health
#471
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#13,340
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Outputs of similar age from BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health
#2
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Altmetric has tracked 34,361,833 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 81st percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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