WOMENS KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

Background. The Government's White Paper The Health of the Nation, pub lished in 1992, identifies action to reduce the numbers of unwanted pr egnancies as a priority in the area of sexual health. Estimates sugges t that nearly half of all women who become pregnant do not plan to do so and many women presenting for abortion could have used emergency co ntraception had they known of its availability and how to obtain it. A im of study. To assess women's knowledge, awareness and use of emergen cy contraception, and to investigate women's views of how access to in formation about emergency contraception might be improved. Method. A s ample of 1354 women aged 16 to 49 was identified from a national omnib us survey of 125 000 individuals. Seven hundred and ninety eight inter views were conducted by telephone with women aged 16 To 49 over a one week period in November 1994. Quotas were set for age, social grade an d region. Women aged 16 to 24 were deliberately oversampled, because o f the higher incidence of unwanted and unintended pregnancy in this ag e group. Results. The response rate was 59 per cent. There was found t o be very little 'spontaneous' awareness of the term, emergency contra ception'. When a list of various contraceptive methods was read aloud however 97 per cent of rite sample had heard of the misleadingly named 'morning after pill'. Less than a quarter of these were able to say a ccurately how long emergency contraceptive pills could be used followi ng unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. Two fifths of those aware of emergency contraception reported having first heard of it from lea flets or books or articles in magazines. Only 14 per cent had heard of it from a doctor or other health professional. Twelve per cent of res pondents reported having used emergency contraception at some time. Al most half of this sub group reported some level of dissatisfaction wit h the service they were offered.