title: Are the Contraceptive Recommendations of Family Medicine Educators Evidence-Based? A CERA Survey.
abstract: Our study aims were to: (1) describe the scope of contraceptive methods provided by US family medicine educators and (2) assess the extent to which US family medicine educators' recommendations regarding eligibility criteria for contraceptive methods are consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
  
  
  
  We contributed survey items as part of the 2014 Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) omnibus survey, which is distributed annually to a national cohort of US family medicine educators. We created two summary scales, comprised of clinical scenarios, to assess the extent to which provider recommendations regarding eligibility criteria for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs, six scenarios) and the intrauterine device (IUD, eight scenarios) were consistent with CDC guidelines.
  
  
  
  Among the 1,054 respondents (33% response rate), 98% prescribe OCPs and 66% insert IUDs. The OCP scale mean was 4.6 ± SD 1.6 (range 0-6), and the IUD scale mean was 4.8 SD ± 2.3 (range 0-8). These scores reflect that 23% of providers' OCP recommendations and 40% of their IUD recommendations were inconsistent with CDC guidelines.
  
  
  
  The contraceptive recommendations of this cohort of family medicine educators only partially reflected evidence-based guidelines. More misconceptions were noted regarding eligibility criteria for the IUD than for OCPs. To avoid denying safe and effective contraception to otherwise appropriate candidates and putting women at risk of unintended pregnancy, evidence-based contraceptive recommendations must be improved among family medicine educators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Justine P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gundersen
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pickle
mesh_terms: D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D003267:Contraception; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004608:Eligibility Determination; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007434:Intrauterine Devices; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D003276:Contraceptives, Oral