TY - JOUR AU - Bhatta, Ramesh AU - Godar, Susmita AU - Aryal, Kabita PY - 2019/06/28 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Knowledge and practice regarding the use of emergency contraception among the higher secondary students of Nepal JF - International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health JA - Int J Community Med Public Health VL - 6 IS - 7 SE - Original Research Articles DO - 10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20192805 UR - https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/4759 SP - 2751-2754 AB - <p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Emergency contraception or post coital contraception refers to methods of contraception that can be used to prevent pregnancy after sexual intercourse. Among the adolescents, premarital and unplanned sexual intercourse mostly result unintended pregnancy. In such conditions, emergency contraception is effective, safe and relatively inexpensive and can prevent pregnancies up to 95% if taken immediately or within 5 days after the sexual intercourse. Emergency contraception is available in pill form and IUD. Objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice of emergency contraception use among the higher secondary level students.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> Study includes descriptive cross-sectional method with total 190 respondents who were selected though census method of sampling. Study data were collected through semi structured questionnaire and the data was analyzed by using the SPSS version 20.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Mean age of the respondent was 17.8 years and 98.4% of them were unmarried. Among the total respondents only 63.7% of them have heard about the emergency contraception. About 14.2% of the respondents had experience sexual intercourse, out of those 51.8% have used emergency contraceptive method to prevent them from unintended pregnancies. Among those who had experience sexual intercourse, 22% of them got unintended pregnancies, which were managed through surgical abortion (83.3%) and medical abortion (16.7%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Knowledge on proper use of emergency contraceptives can prevent unintended pregnancies that may occur among the adolescents due to premarital and unplanned sexual intercourse. However, only two third of respondents have heard about the emergency contraceptives. So it is important to raise awareness on emergency contraception and its rational use among the adolescents.</p> ER -