title: Knowledge, attitude, and practice about Emergency Contraception among health staff in Bushehr state, south of Iran.
abstract: Emergency Contraception (EC) is used within a few days of unprotected sex to prevent an unintended pregnancy. About one quarter of pregnancies in south of Iran are unintended. EC is important option that women can use after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure for preventing of unplanned pregnancies and adverse maternal and perinatal health outcomes. Health staff have influence on women's contraceptive behavior and their knowledge and attitudes about EC can affect women's contraceptive behaviors. Data are lacking about the knowledge, attitude and practice of hormonal EC method among health staff in Bushehr state, south of Iran. A cross-sectional study using self administered questionnaire was conducted. A sample of 170 health staff were surveyed. The mean age of respondents was 30.6±5.1. Overall 6.5% of participants had poor knowledge, 25.2% moderate knowledge, 68.3% good knowledge about EC. Half of participants had positive and half had negative attitude towards the EC method. Midwives and family health workers were more knowledgeable (p<0.05) and more frequently counseled women about EC than general practitioners (GPs) (p<0.001). The most cited reason for EC prescriptions were rupture condom and none use of contraception. Our findings showed despite of majority of health staff had good knowledge about EC, their knowledge about the indications for prescription of EC and its side effects was inadequate. The educational efforts for health staff should be focused more on the specific aspects of EC method. GPs also should be more involved in family planning program.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. najafi112@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Najafi-Sharjabad
authors.forename: Abdollah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hajivandi
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rayani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044363:Contraception, Postcoital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult