Emergency contraception: providers' knowledge and attitudes and their relationship with users' knowledge and...

Emergency contraceptives are accessible and acceptable methods for most women, which their proper use could prevent about three quarters of unwanted pregnancies. In this study, we aimed to determine the providers' knowledge, attitudes and their relation with the pills and condoms users' knowledge of and attitudes towards emergency contraception at public health centers/posts in Tabriz, Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, subjects were 140 health providers working in randomly selected 19 health centers and 33 health posts and 280 married women aged 15 to 49 years who were using contraceptive pills or condoms (two clients of each selected provider). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the providers, while the questionnaire for the clients was filled up by face-to-face interview. The relationships were determined by Pearson's correlation test.

Mean score of the providers' knowledge and attitude was 69.4 ± 11.8 and 70.1 ± 12.8, respectively (possible score range was 0-100). The providers' knowledge score was good only in 35% (score > 75.0). High majority (95.7%) had positive attitudes (score > 50.0). Overall, there were no sig-nificant relationships, neither between the provider's and users' knowledge nor between their attitudes (p > 0.05).

The providers' knowledge was insufficient, and there was no significant association between the providers' and users' knowledge and attitudes. Thus, in addition to the need for promoting providers' knowledge, the other barriers should also be recognized and removed in order to promote using this method.