Knowledge and attitude towards emergency contraceptive among undergraduate students of Kathmandu metropolitan, Nepal

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Background: Emergency Contraception is the only method women can use to prevent pregnancy after they have had unprotected sexual intercourse, have experienced a contraceptive failure, have remembered too late that they have forgotten to take their birth control pills, or have been forced to have sex against their will. Unintended pregnancy poses a major challenge to the reproductive health of young adults both in developed and developing nations. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of undergraduate students of Kathmandu Metropolitan City towards Emergency Contraceptive. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in which self-administered questionnaire was used. A total of 370 sample size was drawn and multi-step sampling technique was used. Quantitative research method was applied, and the data was entered and analysed using SPSS v.16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill., USA). Results: Of the total 370 participants, 42.2% were over the age of 20 years, female participants (54.3%) were slightly more than male participants (45.7%). More than half (54.1%) of the participants had adequate knowledge regarding Emergency Contraception. Age was found to be significantly associated with knowledge of the students (AOR=4.71, 95% CI: 2.02-10.95). 32.11% and they had a positive attitude towards Emergency Contraceptive. Janjati ethnicity compared to Brahmin/Chhetri (AOR=3.049, 95% CI:1.716-5.419), and BBS/BBA study program (AOR=1.962, 95% CI: 1.168-3.297) were found to be significantly associated with the attitude of the participants regarding Emergency Contraceptive. 47% of the participants responded that they will use Emergency Contraception in the future and 52% responded that they will recommend it in future. Conclusion: This study has shown that there is inadequate knowledge and negative attitude of participants towards Emergency Contraception. This study highlights the necessity of awareness campaigns regarding emergency contraception to all faculties and levels of students.