Serbian gynaecologists’ views on contraception and abortion

Abstract

Objectives To examine Serbian gynaecologists’ attitudes and practices related to contraception and abortion, as the principal alternative to contraception.

Methods A self-reported questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of gynaecologists attending educational meetings of a medical society from October 2012 to October 2013. The data gathered were assessed by means of univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results Almost half of the respondents had ethical objections and would refuse to provide certain contraceptives to patients. Two thirds of the gynaecologists (63%) considered fertility awareness methods to be a poor option for most women. Twenty-three percent objected to abortion. Those who objected to contraceptives were less likely to object to abortions (OR: 0.422). This attitude was more prevalent in Southern and Eastern Serbia, where gynaecologists were more likely to object (OR: 4.892) and to refuse to prescribe contraceptives (OR: 4.161), but less likely to object to abortion (OR: 0.278) than in other regions.

Conclusions A large proportion of Serbian gynaecologists objected to some contraceptive methods and were more in favour of abortions, especially in the least developed regions.

Chinese Abstract

摘要

目的：调查塞尔维亚妇产科医生对避孕以及避孕的主要替代方式-流产的态度和行为。

方法：一项自我报告的调查问卷发放给参加2012年10月到2013年10月医学会教育会议的妇产科医生。收集的数据采用单因素及多因素分析。

结果：几乎一半的受访者有伦理上的异议，并拒绝提供某些避孕药给患者。三分之二的妇产科医生（63%）认为生育意识的方法对大多数妇女来说为低劣的选择。20%的妇产科医生反对流产。那些反对避孕药的妇产科医生往往不反对流产（OR：0.422）。这种态度在塞尔维亚南部和东部更为普遍，相比其他地区，这些区域的妇产科医生更可能反对（OR：4.892）和拒绝（OR：4.161）开具避孕药的处方，但不太可能反对流产（OR：0.278）。

结论：很大比例的塞尔维亚妇产科医生反对某些避孕方法，而更喜欢流产，尤其是在最不发达的地区。

Keywords:

• Abortion
• Contraception
• Attitudes
• Gynaecologist
• Fertility awareness methods
• Serbia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the Serbian gynaecologists for their valuable time and effort in completing the questionnaire. The contribution of Dr Steve Quarrie, who revised the manuscript for English language and grammar is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of interest: J. Milosavljevic is an employee of Bayer d.o.o. Dr Mitrovic-Jovanovic gave lectures supported by Bayer d.o.o. and Richter Gedeon Nyrt. The remaining authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.

The research of D. Krajnovic was partially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (Project No.41004).

NOTICE OF CORRECTION

The version of this article published online ahead of print on 28 Nov 2014 contained an error in the spelling of the corresponding author’s email address. “[email protected]” should have read “[email protected]”. The error has been corrected for this version.