Knowledge of the risks and benefits associated with oral contraception in a university-aged sample of users and non-users

As research has shown that knowledge concerning the health risks and benefits of oral contraceptive (OC) use is a contributor to OC compliance, the following study examined an educated sample of young women to determine the level of knowledge concerning the risks and benefits of OC use. A 28-item questionnaire was developed by the research team and distributed to female undergraduate students. Five questions were designed to assess the respondent's knowledge of OC. Overall, it found that OC users answered 71.9% of the questions correctly, whereas non-users answered significantly fewer questions correctly. As well, the number of correct responses increased with academic year, indicating that younger women were less knowledgeable about OC. The results of this study indicate that despite increased efforts to educate women, knowledge of OC remains a major problem, even in a sample of women with relatively high socio-economic status. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.