Adolescent (14-17 year-olds) and young adult (18-20 year-olds) women account for a disproportionate 20% of the total number of unintended pregnancies that occur among women of all reproductive ages (14-55 year-olds) each year in the US. Nearly half (41%) of all unintended pregnancies result from the 18% of women who report inconsistent, incorrect, or no use of their contraceptive method. Evidence shows that a large proportion of these young women, especially those who are sexually active, come to the emergency department for their core sexual and reproductive health care needs. By obtaining a better understanding of the sexual and reproductive health needs and preferences of an urban population that is disproportionately low income and ethnically and racially diverse, our hope is to maximize adolescent and young adult accessibility to contraceptive services most feasible in the PED environment such as Nexplanon, in addition to the provision of comprehensive contraceptive counseling and education.
OBJECTIVES: The first objective of this subgroup analysis is to determine the percentage of adolescent and young adult females presenting to an urban PED who are familiar with Nexplanon and to describe the demographic, sexual health, and contraceptive use characteristics of these young women. The second main objective of our study is to evaluate the sources of Nexplanon-related information reported by respondents familiar with Nexplanon. In addition to the main objectives, we also determine participant willingness to initiate or switch to Nexplanon® and receptivity to learning about contraceptive methods during a related or nonrelated visit to the PED.
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study using a paper-based anonymous questionnaire distributed to female patients, ages 16-21 years, presenting to a Boston urban pediatric emergency department (PED). This is a sub-group analysis of a larger study aimed at describing the contraceptive use history of young women who present to the PED. To identify if any statistically significant categorical variables existed between the two assigned groups, univariate analysis was performed using Chi-squared tests. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained for the relationship between participants who have heard of Nexplanon and the three statistically significant variables: history of STDs, gravidity, and prior sexual intercourse with a male. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to describe the one continuous variable, age, followed by univariate analysis using independent t-test. Statistical significance was indicated using p-values for the categorical variables and odds ratio with 95% CI for the continuous variable—age.
RESULTS: Of the 366 adolescent and young adult females included in our subgroup analysis, 230 (62.8%) indicated they were familiar with Nexplanon. We found that female participants familiar with Nexplanon were 1.3 times more likely to have had a prior STI, twice as likely to have had one or more previous pregnancies, and 3.5 times more likely to have previously engaged in sexual intercourse with a male compared to those female participants unfamiliar with Nexplanon. We also found that most (42.2%) female participants familiar with Nexplanon obtained their contraceptive information from their family and friends only, while about a third obtained their contraceptive information from medical professionals only. Among our total population of respondents, 6% (22/366) of our sub-group participants identified the contraceptive implant as their current method of contraception. Lastly, approximately 21% of female participants familiar with Nexplanon indicated current use of a long-acting reversible contraceptive method at the time of the survey.
CONCLUSION: Overall, our study findings are supportive of and consistent with the provision and education of Nexplanon in the PED. This would be a crucial opportunity to provide comprehensive contraceptive counseling and convenient access to the most effective method of contraception among a population that disproportionately affected by unintended pregnancy. This can be made possible by enabling PED health care providers with the proper access to and training in Nexplanon. By adapting these patient-centered practices and techniques, the PED setting can contribute to the notable reduction in teen pregnancy seen in a variety of similar clinic-based interventions. The PED atmosphere has enormous potential to serve young women as an additional venue for contraception education and access.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/19733 |
| Date | 07 December 2016 |
| Creators | Jariwala, Kavita |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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