Unwanted pregnancy is sometimes associated with unsafe abortion, which may lead to maternal death. Pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse can be avoided by using EC. Our study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of reproductive-aged Lebanese women towards EC use.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted by interviewing randomly selected women from the five major Lebanese governates. A pre-tested, pre-structured questionnaire was applied composed of three parts: personal information, knowledge about EC methods, and attitude towards EC.
We found that 78% of participants had never heard of EC. Among those who had heard of EC, only 29.3% had good knowledge about it. However, learning about EC was not associated with participants’ sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., age, marital status, educational level and background, occupation and occupational field, and residence area). There was a positive attitude towards EC among 57.3% of participants. Attitudes were statistically associated with education level, location of living, and whether the respondent had ever heard of EC.
The study concluded that most Lebanese women of childbearing age lack knowledge about EC. There is a need to raise public awareness of EC.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13625187.2019.1695118
