Knowledge and Perception of Emergency Contraceptives Among Adolescent Girls in Imo State, Nigeria

Unintended teenage pregnancies are associated with several negative outcomes, which include unsafe abortion, school dropout and emotional distress. Contraceptives, especially emergency contraceptives, which offer a second chance of preventing an unplanned pregnancy after unprotected intercourse, may be useful in reducing teenage pregnancies. There have been several studies on the assessment of the level of knowledge and usage of emergency contraception among adolescents. This study focused on comparing the knowledge and perception of emergency contraceptives among female adolescents in co-educational secondary schools and girls-only schools. The study utilized mixed methods to examine knowledge and perception of emergency contraceptives among adolescent girls in Imo State, Nigeria. Systematic and simple random sampling techniques were used to pick respondents from the purposively selected schools in Imo State. Only 14.5% of the respondents had good knowledge of emergency contraceptives even though 52.8% of the sample had heard of them. In the girls-only schools, 19.4% of the respondents had good knowledge of emergency contraceptives, compared with 9.2% of the respondents in co-educational schools who had such knowledge. Additionally, only 25% of the respondents in all had ever used emergency contraceptives. All the respondents had the notion that emergency contraceptives might cause female infertility. The schools had almost similar perceptions about emergency contraceptives. Therefore, sex education, specifically for each gender, is recommended. Also, awareness programs on the use of emergency contraceptives should be intensified among adolescents.