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Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women

OBJECTIVES: To assess knowledge, attitude, and barriers about emergency contraception (EC) among married women of child bearing age. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted over a 6-month period, commencing in March 2013 at Family Practice Clinics of King Khalid University Hospit...

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Autores principales: Karim, Syed Irfan, Irfan, Farhana, Rowais, Norah Al, Zahrani, Basma Al, Qureshi, Riaz, Qadrah, Bedoor H Al
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Professional Medical Publications 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744309/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26870124
http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8127
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author Karim, Syed Irfan
Irfan, Farhana
Rowais, Norah Al
Zahrani, Basma Al
Qureshi, Riaz
Qadrah, Bedoor H Al
author_facet Karim, Syed Irfan
Irfan, Farhana
Rowais, Norah Al
Zahrani, Basma Al
Qureshi, Riaz
Qadrah, Bedoor H Al
author_sort Karim, Syed Irfan
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To assess knowledge, attitude, and barriers about emergency contraception (EC) among married women of child bearing age. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted over a 6-month period, commencing in March 2013 at Family Practice Clinics of King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using a structured pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 statistical software. RESULT: A total of 242 women were enrolled in the study. Only 6.2% (15/242) had some knowledge of EC and of these only two had ever used it. Health care professionals were the least reported source of EC information (6.6%, n=1). Majority (73.3%) had negative attitude toward EC being available over-the-counter without a prescription. The most common barriers to using EC were concerns about possible health effects. Only two women (13.3%) considered religious belief as a major hindrance to its use. CONCLUSION: Awareness of emergency contraception is very low among women of Saudi Arabia. Health care professionals were the least reported source of information, which is a cause for concern. Our findings reveal an urgent need to educate women about EC, keeping in view the social norms and the Islamic values.
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spelling pubmed-47443092016-02-11 Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women Karim, Syed Irfan Irfan, Farhana Rowais, Norah Al Zahrani, Basma Al Qureshi, Riaz Qadrah, Bedoor H Al Pak J Med Sci Original Article OBJECTIVES: To assess knowledge, attitude, and barriers about emergency contraception (EC) among married women of child bearing age. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted over a 6-month period, commencing in March 2013 at Family Practice Clinics of King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using a structured pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 statistical software. RESULT: A total of 242 women were enrolled in the study. Only 6.2% (15/242) had some knowledge of EC and of these only two had ever used it. Health care professionals were the least reported source of EC information (6.6%, n=1). Majority (73.3%) had negative attitude toward EC being available over-the-counter without a prescription. The most common barriers to using EC were concerns about possible health effects. Only two women (13.3%) considered religious belief as a major hindrance to its use. CONCLUSION: Awareness of emergency contraception is very low among women of Saudi Arabia. Health care professionals were the least reported source of information, which is a cause for concern. Our findings reveal an urgent need to educate women about EC, keeping in view the social norms and the Islamic values. Professional Medical Publications 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4744309/ /pubmed/26870124 http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8127 Text en Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Karim, Syed Irfan
Irfan, Farhana
Rowais, Norah Al
Zahrani, Basma Al
Qureshi, Riaz
Qadrah, Bedoor H Al
Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title_full Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title_fullStr Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title_full_unstemmed Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title_short Emergency contraception: Awareness, attitudes and barriers of Saudi Arabian Women
title_sort emergency contraception: awareness, attitudes and barriers of saudi arabian women
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744309/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26870124
http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8127
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