Survey of patient awareness and beliefs regarding emergency contraception

ABSTRACT

To investigate patient's knowledge and beliefs regarding emergency contraception and its use. Cross-sectional descriptive study. A six months cross-sectional descriptive study, from 1[st] July 2009 till 31[st] December 2009 carried out at Shifa international Hospital [SIH] and Shifa community health centre [SFCHC] Islamabad. All married women of reproductive age coming to SIH or SFCHC clinics after informed consent were interviewed regarding their knowledge of emergency contraception. A total of 770 women were interviewed, but the data was completed for 759 women. 131 women [17.3%] had knowledge about emergency contraception but only 79 [10.4%] had actually used this method for contraception. There is a very low awareness level regarding emergency contraception among women of developing countries even in the urban population