Level of Knowledge about Emergency Hormonal Contraception in Medical Students

Abstract

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization, increasing the coverage and quality of family planning services to reduce unwanted pregnancies has a positive impact on both, the preservation of health and promotion of quality of life. However, despite the availability of numerous contraceptive methods, many pregnancies are not planned or desired, what motivates high abortion rates.
Objective: To determine the level of knowledge about emergency hormonal contraception in a group of students of Medicine.
Method: A transversal and prospective descriptive study was carried out in 164 students who had Gynecology-Obstetrics of the fourth year of Medicine at Ramón González Coro Hospital in Havana, Cuba from January 1 to December 31, 2017. An anonymous survey was applied for exploring the level of knowledge on emergency contraception. Results: 90 were women and 74 were men form the total of respondents. The ages ranged 21 and 26 years. The 22 year-old students were the most represented. Only 51% of the respondents demonstrated knowledge on emergency hormonal contraception. The majority were female. The main way they obtained the information was through health workers.
Conclusions: There was little knowledge on emergency contraception, its mechanism of action, side effects and availability. This highlighted the need to work more on sex education of future doctors.