Abstract
Background
As emergency contraception (EC) becomes increasingly available without prescription,
it is important that women in need be provided accurate information about its use.
Study Design
A telephone survey of all retail pharmacies in Los Angeles County was conducted by
women posing as a 23-year-old who wanted to prevent pregnancy after an unprotected
act of intercourse.
Results
One thousand four hundred sixty unduplicated pharmacies listed in the Yellow Pages
2007 were called between October 2007 and April 2008. Sixty-nine percent had EC available
on site; 19% referred the caller elsewhere. The remainder said nothing could be done
or hung up. Multiple calls and multiple recitations of the situation were needed in
over one third of calls. Isolated incidents of inappropriate comments occurred.
Conclusion
While most pharmacies provided information about EC that was consistent with labeling,
barriers still exist to both accurate information and timely access to that product.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 14, 2008
Accepted:
October 2,
2008
Received in revised form:
October 2,
2008
Received:
August 10,
2008
Footnotes
���Possible conflicts of interest: Anita Nelson has served on advisory boards and speakers bureaus for and has received research grants from Duramed/Barr Pharmaceuticals.
������There was no outside funding for this study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
