Resumen

QUINTERO-AGUDELO, MARIANA; GAVIRIA, JAVIER; ESTUPINAN-CABRERA, HERNÁN  y  AMARILES, PEDRO. Causes of dropout, change or therapeutic failure to hormonal contraception in university women. CES Med. [online]. 2013, vol.27, n.2, pp.153-162. ISSN 0120-8705.

Hormonal contraceptives are decisive for birth control. Despite the use of these, undesired pregnancies could appear, associated with therapeutic change or dropout. The causes of these events must be measured to plan further interventions. Objectives: To measure the prevalence of possible causes associated with hormonal contraceptive change or dropout that can trigger therapeutic failure in university women between 17 and 30 years old. Women who use or have used some hormonal contraceptive for birth prevent. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was made. The target population was women enrolled in any of the programs of the University of Antioquia. Women included in this study use or have used hormonal contraceptives as a method of birth control. A non-randomized and stratified sampling was made. A poll to collect data was designed and implemented. The descriptive statistics of the variables was evaluated. Results: 353 women (average age of 21,3 years) were included. A 22,5 % of current users and 24,7 % of past users, take or took hormonal method for self-prescription. Although most of the women had received information of proper use of medication, between 26.2 % and 41.4 % believed that training was insufficient. The most important cause of dropout of therapy was adverse events (48,6% of total cases). Headache and weight gain were the most relevant. Access and economic issues were the second cause of dropout (23.6 % of total cases). Meanwhile, therapy change was attributed to adverse events and discomfort in use. In total there were 7 pregnancies (2 %) without any remarkable cause. Conclusions: The high incidence of adverse events associated to hormonal contraceptives, may be one of the most important causes of change and dropout therapy. Access problems and economic issues are other causes, in order of importance. With these findings, we can highlight the need for vigilance and education in hormonal contraceptive use

Palabras clave : AContraceptive agents; Pregnancy unwanted; Medication adherence.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )