Awareness about emergency contraception among medical students in a Tamil Nadu private medical college: a cross sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20173356Keywords:
Emergency contraception, Awareness, Medical students, Tamil NaduAbstract
Background: The methods of contraception that can be used to prevent pregnancy in the first five days after sexual intercourse are termed as emergency contraception (EC). Unwanted pregnancy among adolescents and youth poses a major challenge to the reproductive health in developing countries because of illegal and unsafe abortions and leading to maternal death. Since medical students are future health care providers and their correct awareness about EC will help in giving health education to the community. The objective of the study was to assess the awareness about emergency contraception among first year medical students in a private medical college of Tamil Nadu.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among first year medical students of a private medical college. A total of 122 students were interviewed using pretested, semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.
Results: Among the study population, 56.6% and 43.4% were males and females respectively. All students heard about EC and 73% were correctly aware about the correct timing of administration of EC. 72% of them felt that they can get EC directly from any pharmacy store without any prescription, 89% of them feel that EC is not an effective routine method of contraception and only 10% said that it will result in more women suffering from STI/HIV.
Conclusions: Our study showed that, students were having good knowledge about emergency contraception. Since they are future health care providers giving adequate training to them in acquiring good knowledge will help in dispensing the reproductive health education to the community especially for the adolescents and youth.
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References
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