Characteristics of women who sought emergency contraception at a university-based women's health clinic.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to identify unique characteristics for seeking emergency contraception (EC) among sexually active unmarried women who attended a university-based women's health clinic (WHC).


METHODS
Three hundred nine consecutive women who attended the women's health clinic for 3 months of the 2006 spring semester completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Fisher exact and Student t tests were used to assess bivariate associations, and step-wise regression was used to determine independent associations.


RESULTS
Women who requested EC were more likely to have previously used EC (P < .001), to have had unprotected sex in the past 6 months (P < .001), to have experienced an unintended pregnancy in the past year (P = .009), and to perceive the need for EC use in the next 3 months (P < .001) but were less likely to use hormonal contraception or an intrauterine device (P < .001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings support the need for increased education that would include the use of and access to effective primary contraceptive methods in conjunction with EC awareness.
Department of Public Health Sciences, John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI, USA. jaredp@hawaii.edu
Jared W
JW
Parrish
Alan R
AR
Katz
John S
JS
Grove
Jay
J
Maddock
Sue
S
Myhre
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044363:Contraception, Postcoital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D049168:Pregnancy, Unplanned; D013333:Student Health Services; D014495:Universities; D047568:Unsafe Sex; D055815:Young Adult