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Published on: August 1, 2019
Pilot evaluation of an internet-based natural family planning education and service program
Richard Jerome Fehring1, Mary Schneider, Kathleen Raviele
1College of Nursing, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881, USA.
Objective:
To evaluate the efficacy, knowledge of fertility, and acceptability of a web-based natural family planning (NFP) education and service program.
Design:
A 6-month repeated measure longitudinal evaluation pilot study.
Setting:
A university based online website.
Participants:
The website was piloted with 468 volunteer women seeking NFP services. Of these participants, 222 used the automatic online fertility charting system to avoid pregnancy. The 222 charting participants had a mean age of 29.9 years (SD=5.6), 2.2 children (SD=1.9), 37% were postpartum, and 47% had regular menstrual cycle lengths.
Intervention:
Nurse-managed web-based NFP education and service program.
Outcomes:
Pregnancies were confirmed by an online self-assessed pregnancy evaluation form. A 10-item fertility quiz and 10-item acceptability survey was administered online.
Results:
Among the 222 users avoiding pregnancy, at 6 months of use, there were two correct-use unintended pregnancies that provided a pregnancy rate of 2% and seven total unintended pregnancies providing a typical use pregnancy rate of 7%. Mean knowledge of fertility increased significantly from time of registration (8.96, SD=1.10) to 1 month of use (9.46, SD=.10), t=4.60, p<.001). Acceptability increased nonsignificantly from 1 month of use (45.6; SD=8.98) to 6 months of use (48.4; SD=8.77).
Conclusion:
The nurse-managed online NFP system seems to provide adequate knowledge of fertility and help participants meet pregnancy intentions. Acceptability of such a system of NFP is still in question.
