Use of emergency contraceptive pills and condoms by college students: A survey
Section snippets
What is already known about the topic?
- •
Willingness to use emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) is associated with the beliefs and attitudes toward using ECPs.
- •
There are concerns that the availability of ECPs will result in reduced condom use. However, the relationship of intention to use ECPs and condom use remain unclear.
What this paper adds
- •
The safety of ECPs was of great concern for female college students.
- •
Individuals with more positive attitudes about ECPs were more willing to use ECPs if they were needed.
- •
This study demonstrates that the intent to use ECPs is positively associated with attitude about condoms as well as the intent to use them.
Design, sample, and setting
The cross-sectional descriptive study recruited a convenience sample consisting of 1046 single undergraduate students from 16 colleges throughout South Korea. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to students between March 15 and June 10, 2006.
In contrast to Western countries where ECPs have been used for several decades, ECPs were only recently introduced to Korea. The Korean government deliberated for many years before deciding to introduce ECPs. Before they
Sample characteristics
Participants ranged in age from 17 to 30 years, with a mean of 22.72 years (SD=2.06). The majority of the participants were female (n=788, 75.3%), and sophomores (41.8%), with 279 freshmen (26.7%), 198 juniors (18.9%), and 132 seniors (12.6%) also included. The largest portion of participants had no religious affiliation (52.2%) followed by Christian (excluding Catholics) (22.1%), Buddhists (14.7%), and Catholics (10.5%), with the remainder having another religion (.5%).
Only 18.2% (n=190) of
Discussion
Participants showed a general lack of knowledge about ECPs and misconceptions about the safety of their use. The intention to use ECP correlated with both intent to use condoms and attitude toward condoms. The intent to use ECPs and condoms was significantly higher for females than for male students, which is not surprising given that women feel responsible for the use of contraceptives and are likely to be most affected by the prospect of unplanned pregnancies.
In previous studies, the intent
Study limitations
The use of convenience sampling limits the generalizibility of the study findings beyond the study sample. However, by selecting students from multiple colleges around the Korean nation, we believe the findings are fairly representative of Korean college students in general. However, young adults not enrolled in college as well as other sexually active groups may have decidedly different attitudes and intentions. Thus, research of other such populations is warranted.
Conclusions
Although a relatively high proportion of students reported having heard of ECPs, their perceived knowledge levels were very low and most had received little education about them. Based on these results, we conclude that campaigns designed to increase awareness of ECPs in college students provide an inadequate depth of information about them. College students also appear to have misconceptions about ECPs that raise their concerns about the safety of these drugs. Thus, more intense efforts to
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2005-003-E00288). We would like to thank the participants for their participation and support.
References (33)
- et al.
Perception of university students in Ghana about emergency contraception
Contraception
(2002) - et al.
Changes in providers’ views and practices about emergency contraception with education
Obstetrics and Gynecology
(2001) - et al.
Advance supply of emergency contraception: a randomized trial in adolescent mothers
Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology
(2005) - et al.
Reproductive health, the Arab world and the internet: usage patterns of an Arabic-language emergency contraception web site
Contraception
(2005) - et al.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding emergency contraception among nurses and nursing students in two hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya
Contraception
(1999) - et al.
The emergency contraceptive pill: a survey of knowledge and attitudes among students at Princeton University
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
(1995) - et al.
Knowledge and willingness to use emergency contraception among low-income post-partum women
Contraception
(2000) - et al.
Advance supply of emergency contraception: effect on use and usual contraception—a randomized trial
Obstetrics and Gynecology
(2003) - et al.
Emergency contraception in Mexico city: what do health care providers and potential users know and think about it?
Contraception
(1999) - et al.
The impact of pharmacy access to emergency contraceptive pills in France
Contraception
(2006)
Chile agrees to emergency contraception for rape victims
Lancet
Effectiveness of emergency contraceptive pills between 72 and 120 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
The role of misconceptions on Latino women's acceptance of emergency contraceptive pills
Contraception
The role of emergency contraception
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Emergency contraception use is correlated with increased condom use among adolescents: results from Mexico
Journal of Adolescent Health
Patterns of emergency contraception use by age and ethnicity from a randomized trial comparing advance provision and information only
Contraception
Cited by (23)
Provision of Emergency Contraception at Student Health Centers in California Community Colleges
2011, Women's Health IssuesCitation Excerpt :Furthermore, EC is safe for nearly all women, and both the World Health Organization (WHO) and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have released statements validating EC’s safety (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2004; WHO, 2010). The availability of EC can be of particular benefit to college students, a population with increased prevalence of first-time sexual intercourse and inconsistent contraceptive use (Kang & Moneyham, 2008). Much of the research examining sexual and reproductive health behavior among college students focuses on traditional 4-year campuses, with limited data on community college students.
The current status of emergency contraception use in reproductive-aged Korean women: a population-based internet survey
2023, Frontiers in EndocrinologyGetting Intentional about Intention to Use: A Scoping Review of Person-Centered Measures of Demand
2022, Studies in Family PlanningEffects of a safe sex program for increasing health literacy intention and practice to prevent pregnancy among undergraduates in thailand
2021, Journal of Public Health and Development