Resumen

GOMEZ, Pio Iván  y  GAITAN, Hernando Guillermo. Intrauterine device (IUS) as emergency contraceptive: knowledge, attitude and practice among health providers in Latin-America: Survey. Rev Colomb Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2004, vol.55, n.4, pp.261-266. ISSN 0034-7434.

Introduction: about 20 million abortions are carried out each year around the world in risk conditions as a result of unplanned pregnancies causing more than 600,000 maternal deaths. Even though the prevalence of using family-planning methods would increased, situations will still occur warranting, "Emergency Contraception" (EC), whether with hormone preparation or Copper T (IUD) following unprotected sexual relations. The objective of carrying out this survey among health providers in Latin American Region, including our country, was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice about EC, specifically in relation to IUD use in EC. Materials and methods: design: cross-sectional study. Population: Latin-American gynaeco-obstetricians working in sexual and reproductive health services. 92 addresses were randomly chosen from a computer-generated list of 1.500 e-mail addresses. Sample size: 46 surveys based on 20% supposed knowledge amongst EC service providers, 5% worse but acceptable and 99% confidence interval. Procedure: electronic survey. The researchers only received files containing the surveys as all electronic Results: 55 people surveyed replied (59.78%). 100% agreed with EC. 49% knew about all available EC options, only 60% mentioned the Levonorgestrel pill and 69% IUD. Around 40% did not agree with using IUD as they considered it: abortion-inducing (9/21) or having low effectiveness (9/21) and there was no wide knowledge regarding the limit of time for using it in EC. Conclusion: there are great differences between knowledge, attitudes and practice amongst health service-providers in Latin-America regarding EC.

Palabras clave : emergency contraception; IUD; survey; health providers.

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