RESUMO
BACKGROUNDS: Enhancing maternal health quality is a concern among researchers globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one factor in women's health and empowerment is the rate of use of various contraceptive techniques. The WHO defines unmet contraceptive need as the discrepancy between a woman's desire to delay or cease childbearing and lack of contraception use to achieve this goal. Our study was designed to measure the unmet need for family planning and contraceptive use among married Saudi women attending primary healthcare centers in Alahsa, Saudi Arabia. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was carried out using multistage cluster stratified sampling. The study included all married Saudi women aged 18-49 attending primary health centers. A structured questionnaire from the United States Agency for International Development Demographic and Health Surveys Methodology was used. Data analysis was performed using the statistical software IBM SPSS version 29 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). RESULTS: In all, 430 individuals were included. The participants' ages ranged from 19 to 49 years (33.4 ± 7 years). Among them, 50 (11.6%) were pregnant. Among those who were not pregnant, 268 (62.3%) were using a method of contraception. Based on the definitions adopted in this study, 90 (20.9%) had unmet needs for family planning, and 340 (79.1%) had their needs met. The total demand for family planning was estimated to be 83.2%. The percentage of demand for family planning satisfied by a modern contraceptive method was 46.9%. CONCLUSION: Although Alahsa has a lower unmet need rate (20%) than other cities in Saudi Arabia, it remains notably higher than the average rate in Northern African and Western Asian countries, which is 10.9%. A number of factors, including nulliparity and having more than two children, were associated with unmet contraceptive needs. The majority of women who did not use contraceptives had concerns about the side effects and inconvenience of use.
RESUMO
Background: The e-prescriptions service connects primary healthcare centers and hospitals to selected community pharmacies in various locations to allow easy access to the nearest pharmacy in the neighborhood, thus facilitating the process of drug dispensing. This study aims to assess patients' satisfaction towards Wasfaty services delivered by Ministry of Health healthcare centers. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Al Ahsa province in Saudi Arabia among adult patients who used Wasfaty services. An electronic Arabic questionnaire including demographic characteristics of patients and questions to assess their satisfaction level with the e-prescription "Wasfaty" service in terms of different aspects. Results: A total of 481 participants were included in the study. Females represented 53.4% of them, and 28.1% were aged 50 years or over. Overall, most of the patients (84.1%) were either satisfied or strongly satisfied with the service (4.28 ± 0.57). After controlling for confounding, patients with chronic diseases were more satisfied with the "wasfaty" service compared to those without chronic diseases. The history of chronic disease was responsible for approximately 2.4% variability of patient satisfaction (r-square = 0.024). Patients' geographic region, age, sex, and educational level were not significantly associated with their satisfaction with "wasfaty" service. Conclusion: The majority of patients, particularly those with chronic diseases, were satisfied with Wasfaty service. However, less satisfaction was observed regarding medication availability.
