[Zanjan Islamic Azad university students' attitudes towards emergency contraception]

ABSTRACT

Unwanted pregnancy is a common health problem worldwide. Emergency contraception [EC] is the best effective approach for solving this problem. For reorganizing and correcting misunderstandings about the use of these methods, the present study was carried out on Zanjan Islamic Azad university students' in order to assess their attitudes towards emergency contraception. The attitudes of 1019 students towards EC was investigated using a self administered questionnaire including questions about demographic data and their attitude status. The data analyzed using appropriate software. About one third of the students [35.2%] had positive attitude, over half of them [64.1%] had impartial and less than one percent [0.7%] had negative attitude towards emergency contraception. Over half of them tended to use it and about one third believed that EC was very effective. 36% wished to obtain it from private health sectors and 35% cited that they did not do anything for the reason of modesty and shyness. Over one third of the subjects believed that using these methods is confronted with their religion. The most important obstacles for obtaining these devices were modesty, shyness and religious reasons which created a negative attitude. Consulting sessions can solve many of these barriers and will support a positive attitude