KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS AMONG COMMUNITY PHARMACY PRACTITIONERS IN UGBOWO BENIN CITY

ABSTRACT
Background. Women and couples continue to experience unintended pregnancies at high rates and There is a critical role for emergency contraception (EC) in preventing those pregnancies. Pharmacists as an available member of the health care system have an important role in educating patients about the effective and appropriate use of contraceptives. Possessing correct therapeutic information on oral contraceptives is an important prerequisite for the provision of sound advice to patients who are using these products. The purpose of this study was to assess pharmacy professionals’ dispensing practice, knowledge, and attitude towards emergency contraceptives use in Ugbowo, Benin City.
Methods. An institution based cross-sectional study was employed from May to June, 2021, with 61 respondents, who have been working in over 35 conveniently selected pharmacies. The collected data was entered to and analysed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.
Result. All of the participants were pharmacist, less than half (44%) with <5 years of experience. About 56 (93.3%) of the participants knew about the dosing schedule (when and how much to take) and side effects of emergency contraceptives. More than two-thirds of the participants (72.13%) has a good dispensing practice of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) and 100% agreed to need of counselling emergency contraceptives is a positive thing. The majority of participants (81.96%) also reported to have good knowledge of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs). Majority (88.5%) of the participants showed positive attitude for dispensing emergency contraceptive
Conclusion. This study revealed that Majority of the respondents had good knowledge and good practice on dispensing ECP and possessed a positive attitude towards the use of ECP.