New contraceptive eligibility checklists for provision of combined oral contraceptives and depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate in community-based programmes

Community-based services (CBS) have long used checklists to determine eligi bility for contraceptive method use, in particular for combined oral contra ceptives (COCs) and the 3-month injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyproge sterone acetate (DMPA). As safety information changes, however, checklists can quickly become outdated, inconsistent checklists and eligibility criter ia often cause uneven access to contraceptives, in 1996, WHO produced updat ed eligibility criteria for the use of all contraceptive methods. Based on these criteria, new checklists for COCs and DMPA were developed. This artic le describes the new checklists and their development. Several rounds of ex pert review produced checklists that were correct, comprehensible and consi stent with the eligibility requirements. Nevertheless, field-testing of the checklists revealed that approximately half (48%) of the respondents felt that one or more questions still needed greater comprehensibility. These fi ndings indicated the need for a checklist guide. In March 2000, WHO convened a meeting of experts to review the medical elig ibility criteria for contraceptive use. The article reflects also the resul ting updated checklist.