Emergency contraception knowledge and prescribing practices: a comparison of primary care residents at a teaching hospital.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine knowledge, opinion, and experience concerning emergency postcoital contraception in primary care physicians who are in training. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire survey distributed to primary care specialty housestaff. SETTING: Questionnaire surveys were distributed to all active primary care housestaff in training and Obstetrics and Gynecology attendings at the University of Kentucky. PARTICIPANTS: The study surveyed all primary care specialty housestaff. Specialties included family practice (FP), internal medicine (IM), pediatrics (PD), and obstetrics and gynecology (OG). The attending faculty in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OGA) were also surveyed as a comparison group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Study variables were compared between specialty of training, year of training, and abortion opinion. ANOVA or Student's t tests were used, with statistical significance defined as P <.05. Each questionnaire was scored 0 to 9 based on knowledge and utilization questions. Overall response rate was 48%, 90 out of 189 surveyed. Response rates per specialty are as follows: FP = 51%, IM = 37%, PD = 48%, OG = 65%, and OGA = 69%. RESULTS: The average score on the survey was significantly different based on specialty of training (P value <. 0001). Scores were not significantly different based on year of training. However, the average attending OG's score was significantly higher than for all the housestaff (P value <.0001). CONCLUSION: Knowledge and utilization of postcoital contraception is dependent on specialty. Unfortunately, this knowledge does not appear to increase with year of training, suggesting that there is a lack of education during the years of training.