AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION AMONG ADULT MARRIED WOMEN ATTENDING PHCS IN TAIF CITY, SAUDI ARABIA, 2020

This study aims to assess the Awareness and knowledge of Emergency contraception among adult married women attending PHCCs in Taif City. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adapted for this study. The study population were married women attending primary health care clinics of childbearing age between 18 and 45 years, Taif, Saudi Arabia. The study excluded unmarried women, married women their age less than 18 or more than 45, and those who refused to participate. A multistage random sampling technique was used as a sampling technique. Data was entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Chi-square test for inferential analysis. Results were considered significant if p<0.05. Results: The study included 250 participants who were aged between 20 and 45 years as 40.4% of whom were aged between 30 and 40 years. The majority of participants were married (87.6%), Saudi (97.2%), had offspring (87.2%), and had university education or higher (69.6%). Nearly half (52%) of respondents knew that it is possible to prevent unwanted pregnancy after having unprotected sex. Average knowledge score was 28.1%, and only 10.4% of respondents scored more than 60%. There is a significant relationship between knowledge level and age (p=0.000), number of offspring (p=0.000), educational level (p=0.000), employment status (p=0.000), and monthly family income (p=0.000). Conclusion: Our study found that the majority of participants had poor knowledge about emergency contraception. Women aged 20 to 30 had better knowledge (27.1%), as did those with postgraduate education (44.2%), employed (21.7%), and a family monthly income of more than 10000 SAR (27.3%). We recommend emphases to conduct awareness campaigns and promotion of emergency contraception among Saudi women.