title: Compliance and oral contraceptives: a review.
abstract: Compliance difficulties are more common among oral contraceptive (OC) users than generally appreciated by clinicians, in part because unintended pregnancy is a relatively infrequent consequence and in part because more common manifestations such as spotting and bleeding may not be recognized as resulting from poor compliance. While improving compliance is a shared responsibility of patients, clinicians, and manufacturers, the clinician is the focal point for these efforts. Counseling must be individualized, which requires knowledge of factors that predict compliance and an understanding of the patient's decision-making process as it relates to medications. Most OC compliance research has focused on adolescents, where predictors of poor compliance include multiple sex partners, low evaluation of personal health, degree of concern about pregnancy, and previous abortion. Good compliance has been linked with patient satisfaction with the clinician, the absence of certain side effects, establishing a regular daily routine to take OCs, and reading information distributed with OC packaging.
authors.affiliation: Health Decisions, Inc., Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Burnhill
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Waugh
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Grimes
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hillard
mesh_terms: D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D003276:Contraceptives, Oral