Emergency contraception - study of Consumption and Knowledge of the risks in Student Populations

Abstract

According to World Health Organization, every year there are 200 million pregnancies which 75 million are unintended. Emergency contraception pills (ECP) is one of the available methods who prevent an unintended pregnancy, after an unprotected sexual intercourse or contraceptive failure. In Portugal, ECP is available over-the-counter, so becomes necessary assess the knowledge and the consumption in students’ populations about this subject, and realize the reasons to use this emergency contraceptive method. The purpose of this study was to quantify the consumption, characterize the level of knowledge and understand the factors that induce the use Emergency Contraception Pills (ECP). This is an observational study using a questionnaire to collect primary data. This questionnaire will be administered to two different samples, one of a group of secondary school students with a population of 680 students and another from a high school of education in Coimbra with a population of 1814 students. Those students agree to participate under informed consent. It is expected, based on several studies and preliminary data, that the majority (>75%) of students had heard about ECP. In terms of consumption, the majority should be first-time users of ECP and in more than half of the situations the factors that lead the use ECP was failure of the contraceptive used. The results also may indicate young’s main information sources are friends, TV and Internet. In Portugal, ECP is available as over-the-counter which facilitates its obtainment and without effective control. It is strongly expected to find a low level of knowledge in these populations regarding health and medicines issues. Students show to have a low level of knowledge Due to the facilitation of available over-the-counter ECP in Portugal, the knowledge among students probably is high and its use is correct.