Myer Landon, Mlobeli Regina, Cooper Di, Smit Jennifer, Morroni Chelsea
Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Unit, School of Public Health & Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
BMC Womens Health. 2007 Sep 12;7:14. doi: 10.1186/1472-6874-7-14.
Emergency contraception (EC) is widely available free of charge at public sector clinics in South Africa. At the same time, rates of teenage and unintended pregnancy in South Africa remain high, and there are few data on knowledge of EC in the general population in South Africa, as in other resource-limited settings.
We conducted a cross-sectional, interviewer-administered survey among 831 sexually active women at 26 randomly selected public sector clinics in the Western Cape province.
Overall, 30% of the women had ever heard of EC when asked directly, after the method was described to them. Only 15% mentioned EC by name or description spontaneously. Knowledge of EC was independently associated with higher education, being married, and living in an urban setting. Four percent of women had ever used EC.
These data suggest that knowledge of EC in this setting is more common among women of higher socioeconomic status living in urban areas. For EC to play a role in decreasing unintended pregnancy in South Africa, specific interventions are necessary to increase knowledge of the method, where to get it, and the appropriate time interval for its use before the need for EC arises. Future health promotion campaigns should target rural and low socioeconomic status communities.
在南非，公共部门诊所可广泛免费提供紧急避孕措施。与此同时，南非青少年怀孕和意外怀孕率仍然很高，并且与其他资源有限的地区一样，关于南非普通人群对紧急避孕措施的了解情况的数据很少。
我们在西开普省26家随机选择的公共部门诊所对831名性活跃女性进行了一项由访谈员实施的横断面调查。
总体而言，在向她们描述紧急避孕措施后直接询问时，30%的女性听说过紧急避孕措施。只有15%的女性自发提及紧急避孕措施的名称或描述。对紧急避孕措施的了解与高等教育、已婚以及居住在城市地区独立相关。4%的女性曾使用过紧急避孕措施。
这些数据表明，在这种情况下，紧急避孕措施的知识在居住在城市地区、社会经济地位较高的女性中更为常见。为了使紧急避孕措施在降低南非意外怀孕率方面发挥作用，有必要采取具体干预措施，以增加对该方法的了解、去哪里获取以及在需要紧急避孕措施之前使用它的适当时间间隔。未来的健康促进活动应针对农村和社会经济地位较低的社区。
