Emergency contraception: a national survey of adolescent health experts.
In a survey of 167 physicians with expertise in adolescent health, 84% said they prescribe contraception to adolescents, but only 80% of these prescribe emergency contraception, generally a few times a year at most. Some 12% of respondents said they believe that providing emergency contraception to adolescents would encourage contraceptive risk-taking, 25% said they think it would discourage correct use of other methods and 29% said they think repeated use of the method could post health risks. Physicians who were more likely than their colleagues to prescribe emergency contraception included obstetrician-gynecologists (92%), those who graduated from medical school after 1970 (77%) and those who describe their practice as being in an "academic" setting (76%). Physicians may restrict use of the method by limiting treatment to adolescents who seek it within 48 hours after unprotected intercourse (29%), by requiring a pregnancy test (64%) or an office visit (68%), or by using the timing of menses as a criterion for providing the method (46%). While 41% of physicians who provide emergency contraception counsel adolescents about the method during family planning visits, only 28% do so during visits for routine health care; 16% counsel women who are not yet sexually active about the method.
Gold
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MA
Division of General Academic Pediatrics/Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, USA.
Schein
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A
Coupey
S M
SM
D000293:Adolescent; D000295:Adolescent Medicine; D003267:Contraception; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011247:Pregnancy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States