Knowledge and intention to use long-acting reversible contraception among university students

Abstract

Objective

To assess the relationship between knowledge of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and intention to use LARC among female students.

Participants

Participants consisted of a convenience sample of 292 female undergraduate and graduate students at a large midwestern university.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional in-person survey and multivariate analysis of LARC knowledge and intention to use LARC.

Results

Total response rate was 84.9%. Among contraceptive users, 13.3% were using a LARC method. On average, respondents scored 4.8/10 (SD 2.5) on a 10-item LARC knowledge assessment. Higher levels of LARC knowledge were associated with the intent to use LARC in the future in our multivariate analysis (RR 1.7, 95% CI 1.14–2.54: p = .01). Common reasons for LARC hesitancy were a need for more information, safety concerns, and risk of undesirable side effects.

Conclusions

Low LARC knowledge and students’ self-identified need for further LARC information represent an opportunity for campus contraceptive interventions which empower students to make informed reproductive decisions.

Keywords:

• College student
• long-acting reversible contraception
• LARC
• student health
• university student

Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The funding source had no direct involvement in study design, data collection or analysis, writing, or decision to submit this article for publication.

Conflict of interest disclosure

Dr. Peipert receives research support from Bayer, CooperSurgical & Merck, and serves on an advisory Board for OCON Healthcare. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Indiana University.

Prior publication

Preliminary data from this survey were presented at Indiana University Medical Student Program for Research and Scholarship Poster Day in August 2019. Abstract with preliminary data was accepted to the European Society of Contraception’s conference which was rescheduled in March 2020 and subsequently published in the conference’s 2021 Book of Abstracts.

Data availability statement

Data from this manuscript are available at: Peipert, Jeffery (2021), “Knowledge and Intention to Use LARC”, Mendeley Data, V1, http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/x7k7cg7pc5.1.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute funded in part by UL1TR002529 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).