Abstract
Objectives
Contraceptive prevalence is relatively low in Albania, and abortion is the mainstay
of family planning. Although levonorgestrel-only emergency contraceptive pills are
available, uptake of this method is minimal. Emergency contraception (EC) could play
a significant role in addressing women's need for an effective and discreet pregnancy
prevention method. However, information about the dynamics surrounding EC is limited.
Study design
In 2016–2017, we conducted a multimethods qualitative study that aimed to explore
awareness, knowledge, attitudes and practices toward EC in Albania. This project comprised
four components: a community-based survey with 115 respondents, six focus group discussions
with women of reproductive age, 19 semistructured key informant interviews, and 16
structured interviews with retail pharmacists. We analyzed our data using descriptive
statistics and for content and themes.
Results
Our findings suggest that EC is widely available in pharmacies in Albania. However,
a quarter of our survey participants did not know whether EC was available, and more
than a third did not think EC was safe to use. Women face numerous barriers to accessing
this form of contraception. Misconceptions about hormonal contraceptives, in general,
and about progestin-only EC in particular, lack of training among providers, and stigma
and fear of judgment were common obstacles identified by participants.
Conclusions
Misinformation and lack of knowledge about EC among women and providers in Albania
appears common. Training health service providers, raising awareness among women,
and developing linguistically and culturally resonant materials for distribution could
be keys to improving access to and use of EC.
Implications
Although the availability of progestin-only EC is widespread in Albania, our findings
suggest that more work needs to be done to align national regulatory policies with
international standards, facilitate evidence-based service delivery, and increase
access to medically accurate information in Albanian.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 11, 2018
Accepted:
March 28,
2018
Received in revised form:
March 27,
2018
Received:
February 15,
2018
Footnotes
☆Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
