Attitudes of female college students toward over-the-counter availability of oral contraceptives.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine female college students' beliefs about oral contraceptive pill (OCP) availability and use, and to examine significant factors associated with these beliefs. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Urban women's liberal arts college. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred ninety female undergraduates who completed surveys. INTERVENTION: An anonymous survey was placed in all undergraduate mailboxes. Surveys were returned to a locked collection box in the mailroom. Within 4 weeks after distribution. 290 surveys were completed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sexual and contraceptive practices and students' beliefs regarding whether OCPs should be made available without prescription. RESULTS: The respondents' average age was 20.9 +/- 3.3 years; 84% reported previous sexual intercourse with the mean age of first intercourse at 16.6 +/- 2.2 years. Seventy-five percent of the sexually active women reported use of OCPs and 52% had used OCPs at their last intercourse. Sixty-five percent of all respondents felt OCPs should not be available without prescription. The two most commonly cited reasons for not wanting OCPs to be available over the counter ( OTC) were that (1) side effects might occur that a health care provider could have prevented (59%), and (2) people would not go to their providers for regular check ups (56%). The most commonly cited reason for believing that OCPs should be available OTC was that there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies (74%). Race, previous OCP use, previous sexual activity, and perceived risk of pregnancy were not significant predictors of believing OCPs should be available OTC. Having had a previous pregnancy was a significant predictor of believing OCPs should be available OTC (p = 0.047). Those who believed OCPs should be available only with a prescription were willing to pay more for OCPs (p = 0.033). Logistic regression controlling for race revealed that both younger age (p = 0.03) and previous pregnancy (p = 0.002) were independent predictors of believing OCPs should be available OTC. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of our sample believe that OCPs should remain as a prescription medication. Previous pregnancy and younger age are important factors in determining beliefs regarding OCP availability. Further studies in a more diverse population are needed to explore the relationship between age, previous pregnancy, and desire for contraceptive availability without prescription.[1]References
- Attitudes of female college students toward over-the-counter availability of oral contraceptives. Forman, S.F., Emans, S.J., Kelly, L., Beal, J., Goodman, E. Journal of pediatric and adolescent gynecology. (1997) [Pubmed]
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