Emergency contraception counseling: An opportunity for pharmacists

Objective: To determine the impact of pharmacist counseling on patients' knowledge of emergency contraception (EC). Design: Single-group, repeated-measures analysis. Setting: Academic medical center women's clinic in Little Rock, AR, between January and July 2010. Participants: 116 women 18 years or older. Intervention: 10-minute education session provided by a pharmacist or trained student pharmacist. Main outcome measures: Change in participants' test scores (range 0 [lowest possible] to 13 [highest possible]) at three assessment periods (pretest, posttest, and follow-up) using 12 knowledge questions. Results: 116 participants with a mean (+/- SD) age of 25 +/- 5.9 years participated in this study. Mean knowledge scores were 5.3 +/- 4.1 for the pretest and 10.7 +/- 1.4 for the posttest (P < 0.001). The least-squares mean EC knowledge test score (adjusted for demographics) was 5.86 at pretest, 10.75 at posttest, and 10.75 at follow-up. A nonsignificant small change in scores from posttest to follow-up was detected after the Tukey-Kramer adjustment. A higher education level was associated with higher knowledge scores in this population. Conclusion: Brief pharmacist-driven counseling sessions provided in a clinic setting are feasible and have a positive impact on immediate EC knowledge and long-term knowledge retention.