| dc.description.abstract | Emergency contraception (EC) is a contraceptive method with an indication reserved for special situations with the aim of preventing an unplanned pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse, but which should not be used in a planned way or replace the contraceptive method as a routine. This is a school-based cross-sectional study with university students in the health field aged 18 or over, female and regularly enrolled at the university institution. The research instrument was the application of a self-administered questionnaire composed of 209 direct and specific questions, eight of which related to the outcome: “Have you ever used emergency contraception or the morning-after pill?”. The study population consisted of 1596 students with 412 losses after evaluating the outcome, totaling a sample of 1184 university students analyzed. Fieldwork was carried out between October and December 2018 and the assessed exposures included demographic, socioeconomic, academic, religion, behavioral and sexual behaviorrelated variables. The data were entered into the Epi Data 3.1 program and analyzed using the STATA 12.0 statistical program. Poisson regression with robust variance was used according to a conceptual model of analysis, maintaining in the model the variables associated with the outcome with p <0.20 for adjustment of confounding factors and associations with p <0 were considered significant, 05. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of the use of emergency contraception and associated factors, among university students in the health field at a higher education school in the Brazilian Midwest. The results found showed that the prevalence of the use of emergency contraception (EC) was 71.3% (95% CI: 68.7-73.9%). After adjusting for confounding factors, the study showed that behavioral habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol and using illicit drugs increased the likelihood of using emergency contraception by 17%, 12% and 17%, respectively. The analysis of sexual behavior showed that having had first sexual intercourse aged 15-19 years reduced the probability of use by 12% and after 20 years the reduction was 20%. The study observed a high prevalence in the use of emergency contraception among university students, and the results suggest that sexual and reproductive orientation programs should be carried out in order to show the importance of using safer contraceptive methods and that emergency contraception should only be used in specific and exceptional cases. | en |
