Nationwide audit of pill knowledge amongst family planning users in Scotland

The primary objective of this study was to estimate knowledge about oral contraceptives amongst oral contraceptive users within family planning clinics in Scotland and to ascertain if this was due to clinicians not attempting to convey certain information or to a lack of understanding of teaching.

This was a criterion-based audit using three separate questionnaires to estimate the agreement of senior staff with criteria set by a multi-disciplinary expert panel, actual routine clinical practice and user knowledge.

Senior clinical staff within family planning clinics in Scotland agreed with 12 out of 15 criteria set by a multidisciplinary panel in over 85% of cases. For six out of 15 criteria, there was a discrepancy of more than 30% in what clinicians did in practice compared to what senior staff thought they ought to do. For a further two criteria, there was a deficiency of over 30% between the number of clients who understood the criteria and the number of clients the clinicians thought they had taught. Most importantly, these latter criteria included the rules for safe and effective pill taking.

An improvement in user knowledge is required to achieve effective and reliable use of oral contraceptives. Methods of doing this, such as staff and client prompts, should be further explored.