Why Do Women Miss Oral Contraceptive Pills? An Analysis of Women's Self‐Described Reasons for Missed Pills

Abstract

Inconsistent use of oral contraceptives (OCs) exposes women to risks of unintended pregnancy. This study explored women's self-described reasons for missed OC pills. Data from diary cards completed by 141 women were studied to see how reasons for missing pills were related to patterns of pill use. The findings suggest that practitioners might improve OC use by focusing on the reasons that women miss pills, thus providing a more tailored approach that addresses individual risks based on women's personal experiences.

Should the Annual Pelvic Examination Go the Way of Annual Cervical Cytology?

“…However, a recent study illustrates that health provider practice is slower to change in that a third of clinicians surveyed reported requiring patients to have a pelvic examination before prescribing oral contraception [32]. Given that nonuse of oral contraception has been linked to access [33] and cost issues, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published future science group Should the annual pelvic examination go the way of annual cervical cytology? Perspective a Committee Opinion advocating the availability of oral contraceptives without a prescription in the USA [34].…”

Studying the Use of Oral Contraception: A Review of Measurement Approaches

“…Seventeen reports described OC use in defined populations, 15,21,[25][26][27]29,31,33,35,37,39,42,47,[53][54][55][56] 15 reports identified predictors of OC use, 14,23,24,30,32,40,41,45,46,48,50,51,[54][55][56] 7 were randomized trials that evaluated some aspect of OC use, 29,34,36,38,43,44,49 and 2 were validation studies that evaluated approaches to measuring OC use. 22,52 All studies except 2 were conducted in clinic-based settings; the remaining 2 used population-based samples.…”

“…48,56 The most common setting was reproductive health practices. [21][22][23][24][26][27][28][29][49][50][51][52] All but 5 studies were carried out in the United States. 25,34,39,44,14 The reported race=ethnicity of samples was mixed 14,32,33,36,37,[39][40][41][42]43,44,[53][54][55][56] or Caucasian.…”

“…25,34,39,44,14 The reported race=ethnicity of samples was mixed 14,32,33,36,37,[39][40][41][42]43,44,[53][54][55][56] or Caucasian. [21][22][23][24]26,35,48 Sample sizes ranged from 11 52 to 237,242. 54 Terminology used to describe OC use differed among studies.…”

“…14,15,26,27,29-31, 34-37,39-41,43-52,55,56 Self-administered surveys were used by 11 research groups 25,26,28,[35][36][37][38][39]42,44,45 and daily diaries by 6 teams. [21][22][23][24]38,42 Nine studies used a combination of two or more self-report methods; 26,[35][36][37][38][42][43][44][45] only 6 studies combined a self-report method with a direct method or more rigorous indirect measure. [21][22][23]49,50,52 Few researchers provided information on reliability and validity of measures from studies using self-report methods.…”