Tailored health messaging improves contraceptive continuation and adherence: results from a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Discontinuation and incorrect use of contraceptive methods may contribute to as many as 1 million unintended pregnancies annually in the United States. Interventions to improve contraceptive method continuation and adherence are needed.

STUDY

DESIGN

A three-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted at two family planning sites testing the efficacy of a computer-based contraceptive assessment module in increasing the proportion of patients who continued use of their chosen contraceptive method 4 months after the family planning visit (n=224).

RESULTS

In analyses adjusting for clinical site of recruitment, family planning patients who used the module and received individually tailored health materials (n=78), compared to those in the control group (n=70), were significantly more likely to continue use of their chosen contraceptive method [95% compared to 77%; odds ratio (OR)=5.48; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.72-17.42] and to adhere to their method (86% compared to 69%; OR=2.74; 95% CI: 1.21-6.21). No significant differences in these outcomes were found for participants who used the module but did not receive tailored materials (n=76), compared to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

Tailored health materials significantly improved contraceptive method continuation and adherence. Additional research on the impact of the intervention on continuation and adherence in a larger sample and over a longer follow-up period is merited.