Acta Medica Medianae
Vol. 53, No 1, March, 2014
UDC 61
ISSN 0365-4478(Printed version)
ISSN 1821-2794(Online)
 

Correspondence to:

Milena Veljković

Health Centre

18000 Niš, Serbia

E-mail:  dr.milena.veljkovic@gmail.com

Original article                                                   

UDC: 378.18(497.11 Niš):615.256.3

doi:10.5633/amm.2014.0103

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NIŠ UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ABOUT EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

Milena Veljković¹, Olivera Radulović², Dragana Veličković³

Health Centre, Niš, Serbia¹

Public Health Institute, Niš, Serbia²

University of Niš, , Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Physiology, Niš, Serbia³

Emergency contraception is a treatment that used as an emergency procedure to prevent unwanted pregnancy after an unprotected sexual intercourse or contraception failure regardless of the point in the menstrual cycle. The most common method is the treatment with sexual steroids and the second-line form is the copper intrauterine device. A considerable number of female students of Nis were informed about the existence of emergency contraception. Younger generations (I/II years of sudy) were better informed than older generations (III/IV years of study): 81.6% vs. 57.5%. The difference was statistically significant (χ² =7.91;p<0.005). The students of medicine were better informed than the students of art and science: 87.9% vs. 78.2% vs. 70.0% but there was not statistical difference. It is expected that adequate usage of emergency contraception will significantly reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. It is only emergency treatment and is not a substitution for regular contraception. Students are very important in the population of youth and it is expected that they could be optimally informed about this method of fertility control. Acta Medica Medianae 2014;53(1):15-18.

Key words:: emergency contraception, students