The use of emergency contraception among young university women

This paper aimed to verify contraceptive behavior, especially the use of emergency contraception among female Nursing students. Undergraduate nursing students at a public university in São Paulo - SP, Brazil answered a structured questionnaire through e-mail during a week of June 2006. Of the 300 women students invited to take part in the study, 196 answered the questionnaire. Almost half had already used emergency contraception (44,9%) and had access to the medication in pharmacies without any medical prescription or help from their partners. Main reasons for using emergency contraception were contraception failures or non-use and feelings that contraception used was not efficient. Logistic multiple regression showed that the use of emergency contraception was associated with having two or more sexual partners, knowing someone who had used the day-after-pill and having not used condom once in a lifetime.

Contraception; Contraception, postcoital; Women's health