Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Emergency Contraception among Medical/Dental Students at the Copperbelt University School of Medicine

Abstract

Background: Under-utilisation of Emergency Contraception (EC) has been reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the major  contributors to unplanned pregnancies that ultimately lead to unsafe abortions and increase in maternal morbidity and mortality. Under-utilisation of the emergency contraceptive methods may be due a number of reasons such as negative attitude or lack of information about the methods.

Methods: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive and was conducted among both male and female Students at CBU-SoM from 4th to 5th  academic years. A selfadministered structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 182 clinical Students who were selected using random sampling technique. Collected data was coded, entered and analysed using SPSS version 20.0.

Results: The study showed that a majority of participants 133(73.6%) had very good knowledge about ECs. On the contrary, majority of participants  revealed negative attitudes 139(76.9%) and practices 119(65.4%) towards ECs. Negative attitudes where associated with year of study (P=0.026, R= -1.350) and religion (P=0.027, R= -0.23) while negative practices were associated with increase in number of sexual partners (P= 0.02) and those who were sexually active (P=0.01).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated significant levels of negative attitudes and practices towards ECs use. These findings are consistent with the  reported under-utilization ECs and a major contributing factor to widely documented unplanned pregnancies among young women in Zambia.