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Pharmacy access to medical abortion from trained providers and post‐abortion contraception in Nepal
Author(s) -
Puri Mahesh C.,
Harper Cynthia C.,
Maharjan Dev,
Blum Maya,
Rocca Corinne H.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1002/ijgo.12595
Subject(s) - medicine , abortion , medical abortion , pharmacy , unsafe abortion , pill , family medicine , obstetrics , family planning , misoprostol , pregnancy , gynecology , population , nursing , environmental health , research methodology , genetics , biology
Objective To examine whether auxiliary nurse‐midwife provision of medical abortion in pharmacies was associated with reduced post‐abortion contraceptive use in Nepal. Methods The present prospective observational study compared contraceptive use among women aged 16–45 years and up to 63 days of pregnancy, who presented at one of six privately‐owned pharmacies or six public health facilities in the Chitwan and Jhapa districts of Nepal for medical abortion between October 16, 2014, and September 1, 2015. Participants obtained medical abortions per Nepali protocol and completed a follow‐up visit and interview at 14–21 days. Effective contraceptive use was compared between abortion care settings using multivariable mixed effects logistic regression. Results Of 605 participants, 600 completed follow‐up at 14–21 days; 474 (79.0%) were using a contraceptive method, most commonly pills (180 [30.0%]) and injectables (175 [29.2%]), followed by condoms (82 [13.7%]), long‐acting reversible methods (33 [5.5%]), and sterilization (4 [0.7%]). Receipt of care from a private pharmacy was not associated with a difference in the use of hormonal or long‐acting methods (adjusted odd ratio 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.60–1.33). Conclusion Medical abortion provision from pharmacies by qualified providers can provide women with necessary induced‐abortion care while not compromising longer‐term pregnancy prevention.