An Assessment of Patients Choice of Contraceptive at First Visit to the Family Planning Clinic, LUTH - A Five Year Review

Abstract

Background: Contraceptives are methods and devices used in preventing pregnancy. Unintended and unplanned pregnancies have social, economic and public health impacts. A high proportion of unintended pregnancies occur among women who do not desire pregnancy yet do not use a method of contraception. Aside the health benefits of using contraception to space or limit family size, it also helps to curb undesired population growth.
Objectives: To assess patients' choice of contraceptive at first visit to the Family Planning Clinic of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted among women attending the family planning clinic of the st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology between 1 st January 2006 and 31 December 2010. The family planning clinic database and patients' medical records were reviewed and relevant information was retrieved using a structured data collection form. The data were analysed and presented as proportions and mean.
Results: There were a total of 1,356 patients who registered for family planning services during the study period. The mean age of patients was 31.0 (5.4) years, with a range of 15 47 years. Most of the patients were aged 30 34 years. The median parity was 4 with a range of 1 to 6. Most of the patients were married (92.6%) and had at least one living child (93.1%). Prior to the first visit, majority (61.1%) of the clients had never used any form of contraception and about three-fifth(58.4%) of them had no intension of having any more children because they had completed their family size. Majority of the clients chose long-acting reversible contraceptives such as IUCD (41.3%) and subdermal implants(30.3%) at their first visit. Most (51.1%) of the clients were referred to the family planning clinic by their healthcare providers (doctors and midwives/nurses).
Conclusion: Most clients chose the IUCD and subdermal implants at their first family planning clinic visit. The choice of long-acting reversible contraceptives may be due to the relatively high parity of study population and the need to limit their family size.

Keywords: Contraceptive choice, first visit, family planning clinic.