Knowledge, Awareness and Perception of Female Students of Emergency Contraceptive Pills

Background: Young women are at the greatest risk of unintended pregnancy because they are unlikely to see a family planning provider before or immediately after the sexual activity. Therefore, preventing unintended pregnancy among them is the important concern. Introduction of emergency contraception pill (ECP) in the recent past can help them avoid such unintended pregnancies. Aims & Objective: To investigate the knowledge, awareness and perception of emergency contraception in female students. Study Design: Cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among college-going female students at Bareilly ( UP). Systematic random sampling was used to select the respondents. This study was done on 850 respondents. A pretested questionnaire was administered to respondents. In analyzing the data, we used simple proportions and percentages. Results: Out of 850 students included in the study, 767 (90.3%) have heard the name of ECP. 90.3% knew it is available in tablet form, 52.8 % said it is taken to avoid pregnancy, 72.2% said it should be taken after sex .68.8% told ECP should be taken within 72 hours. 58.7% said it is safe. 75.6% told it is easily available without doctors prescription. Source of information regarding ECP was TV, magazines ‘and internet to most of students .Conclusions: Awareness about ECP was very good among female college students especially regarding correct timing of its use in this study. ECP is still an area where much work needs to be done and strategies to increase awareness and acceptability need to be undertaken. Clearly we need to adopt an aggressive promotional and educative approach to make more and more women of reproductive age group aware of ECP to prevent unintended pregnancy.