ORAL-CONTRACEPTIVE USE BEFORE AND AFTER THE LATEST PILL SCARE IN THE NETHERLANDS - CHANGES IN ORAL-CONTRACEPTIVE USE AND HOW USERS CHANGE

In October 1995, a ''pill scare'' developed in Europe. In the Netherla nds, the recommendations given were 1) to not alarm women without risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and 2) to be reserved in prescribing third generation oral contraceptives (OC) for young women who were beg inning OC use. To determine whether there is a change in the prescript ion of third generation OC after the latest pill scare, prescription d ata from 1/10/94 to 1/10/96, covering a population of +/-120,000 perso ns, were studied with respect to OC use before and after the pill scar e. Trend analyses revealed a significant decline in third generation c ompared with total OC prescribing only in the youngest age category (p = 0.0034). Further, switch behavior was studied. Switches from third to second generation OC were more prevalent after the pill scare than before (odds ratio = 2.63; 95% confidence interval 1.84-3.75) and swit ches from second to third generation OC were significantly less preval ent after the pill scare. This indicates that Dutch prescribers have r eacted to the pill scare in the way that the government recommended. C ONTRACEPTION 1998;57:247-249 (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.