Abstract

Despite a plethora of research about contraceptive safety and efficacy in the United States, little is known about how contraceptive counseling affects patient experience and contraceptive use. Contraceptive counseling is the time when a provider discusses contraceptive methods with their client. The aims of this study are to investigate whether perceived quality of contraceptive counseling and perceived bias from providers are associated with satisfaction, choice, and continuation of a patient’s contraceptive method among college-aged women. This study is a cross-sectional survey of college students. The methods of this study included an anonymous survey administered to 200 students across 18 sections of Humanities classes that include students from all disciplines and years, at a small liberal arts college in the Southeast United States. The questionnaire included both closed- and open-ended questions regarding perceived bias, what kind of contraceptive counseling they received, how satisfied and willing to continue their current contraceptive method they are, and questions about their sex and self-identified gender. Quantitative data were analyzed for female individuals who have received contraceptive counseling. Participants who were “very satisfied” with their contraceptive counseling, 93.55% of participants were either “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their current contraceptive method (n=146). The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.3892 (p<0.001). The survey results suggest that more comprehensive contraceptive counseling is associated with higher satisfaction of the chosen method to decrease unplanned pregnancies and adverse effects. These finding indicate that if providers give patients unbiased, comprehensive counseling, then users of contraceptives will feel more confident in and satisfied with the method they are using.

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