The Relationship between Risky Behaviors and the Utilization of Emergency Contraception

Abstract

Objectives: Describe the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use in college women who use emergency contraception (EC) or oral contraceptives. Methods: This study was a descriptive, retrospective study that utilized patient charts to obtain clinical data including emergency contraception utilization, hormonal contraception utilization, alcohol and tobacco use. The primary dependent variables were smoking status and alcohol use. The overall prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use was calculated by counting the total number and percentage for each substance. Determining if descriptive variables vary according to type of contraception, groups were compared using a t-test for independent groups and a Chi square, respectively. The a priori alpha level is 0.05. Results: The most important finding in this study is students that obtained EC reported drinking alcohol at a significantly higher level than students who used hormonal contraception. 49% of students who used EC reported drinking 5 or more drinks a week. The data for the alcohol use was the only data that was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). In this study 22% of students who requested EC had unprotected sex. A positive result seen in this study was that only 2% of the EC students requested EC more than once in the spring semester. Freshman composed 54% of the students that used EC during this study. Other data that was of interest was that 33% of students that used EC were currently using oral contraception but only 25% claimed that oral contraception incompliance was the reason for EC utilization. Implications: Prevalence of alcohol use is significantly higher in students who use EC than students who used hormonal contraception. This leads to the conclusion that students that use alcohol are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and therefore request EC. This study also has shown that nurses and physicians need to get more accurate information from students regarding tobacco and alcohol use.