Questionnaire study of use of emergency contraception among teenagers

Aim of the study is to get the information and frequency of emergency contraception use, as well as sexual activity, among teenagers in ages 15 to 18 in Skopje. Material and Methods: Study design included questioning 638 teenagers, females, at the ages between 15 and 18 years, in four secondary schools in the area of Skopje in 2010. The authors used the anonyme questioning for real responses obtaining. The results were analysed with descriptuve and analytical epidemiologicall method. Results: The paper presents the results for girls in secondary schools from the cohort 1995 (mean age of 15,8 yrs., range 15,3-16,2) and 1994 (mean age of 16,6 and range 16,3-17,4), as well as for girls in upper secondary schools from the cohort 1993 (mean age 17,9 with range 17,5-18,8 yrs.Only 33% of the 15-16 years olds and 27,5% of the 17-18 years olds didn’t know what emergency contraception is. The proportion of girls who had used emergency contraception increased with age from 2,1% to 15,1%. Two thirds of all girls who had used emergency contraception had used it only once. In secondary schools 7,3% of 15 year olds (cohort 1995) and 16,8% of 16 year olds (cohort 1994) had sexual intercourse, while among 17 – 18 year olds (cohort 1993) this percent was 41,5%. Information about the usage of contraception and consultations with gynecologist about that have had only 57 (8,9%) from the girls that were included in the survey and most of them searched for the information on the internet. Conclusions: Emergency contraception is a part of primary health care in local health centers and family planning clinics in many European countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway). Sexual education in schools includes adequate informationing and consulting of teenagers about the sexual problems including emergency contraception. In our country the sexual education is not imposed inthe schools and consultations with gynecologist about using contraceptive methods confirmed only low percentage of the girls in age from 15 to 18 years. Keywords: teenagers, education, emergency contraception, sexual intercourse