Deema Jaber1 
,
Linda Tahaineh2,
Amal Akour3,
Abla Albsoul-Younes3
For correspondence:- Deema Jaber Email: dsuleiman@zu.edu.jo
Accepted: 18 September 2020 Published: 30 October 2020
Citation: Jaber D, Tahaineh L, Akour A, Albsoul-Younes A. Awareness of combined oral contraceptives use among Jordanian women: A cross-sectional study. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(10):2187-2195 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i10.24
© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: To investigate Jordanian women’s knowledge, attitude, awareness and practice regarding combined oral contraceptives (COCs) benefits and risks.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 Jordanian women attending the Obstetrics and Gynecology clinics at Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan. A closed- and open-ended questionnaire was used to explore Jordanian participants' knowledge, attitude and practice regarding COCs use, effect and side effects. Structured interviews were conducted by a trained research team. Thus, it was a pharmacist-assisted survey, and lay language was used to explain difficult medical terminology
Results: Most of participants were prescribed COCs by their physicians (77.1 %), half of them depend on others' experiences and media as sources of information rather than consulting their healthcare team. Half of participants have an idea of non-contraception uses of COCs (50.3 %). One fourth of women (26.0 %) believed that using COCs decreases fertility or even causes infertility, especially if used before their first pregnancy (43.3 %). Women in their middle age were more uncertain about the relation between COCs use and anemia (p = 0.014) or dysmenorrhea pain (p = 0.005). While women who used COCs believed more that the pills regulate menstruation (p < 0.001) and decrease dysmenorrhea pain (p < 0.001) compare with women who had never used COCs pills. Women in general are uncertain if COCs use has negative or positive relation with some types of cancer such as ovarian, cervical and breast. Women who are not affiliated to the healthcare professions were more uncertain about the relation between COCs use and atherosclerosis risk (p = 0.002), MI (p = 0.025) and stroke risk (p = 0.035).
Conclusion: There is insufficient awareness and knowledge of the beneficial and non-contraceptive uses of COCs. Educational programs are needed to improve women’s awareness of the benefits and risks of COCs.
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