Change in medical students' intent to use and recommend long-acting reversible contraception after the obstetrics and gynaecology clerkship: a prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether medical students' intent to use long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) increased after exposure to the obstetrics and gynaecology (OB-GYN) clerkship.

METHODS

This is a prospective cohort study conducted at a US medical school. We administered a survey to students before and after the OB-GYN clerkship, asking about intent to personally use an intrauterine device (IUD) or implant in the future or recommend to a sexual partner, a family member, friend, or patient. We also asked about familiarity with method benefits and side effects. To compare pre and post responses, we used McNemar's and the marginal homogeneity test. We used Stata SE Version 16.1 for all analyses (α = 0.05).

RESULTS

Of 254 medical students who completed the clerkship between August 2022 and November 2023, 237 (93.3%) completed the pre-clerkship survey; of these, 123 (51.9%) also completed the post-clerkship survey. Of those who could be matched, 58 students (47.2%) said they would very likely use a LARC themselves or recommend to a partner pre-clerkship; this number increased to 85 (69.1%) post-clerkship (p < 0.001). Students' likelihood of recommending LARC to family, friends, and patients all increased, as did their familiarity with method benefits and side effects. Students were most likely to recommend the hormonal IUD to patients (73.8%), compared to 43.1% for the implant and 31.7% for the copper IUD.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical students' stated intent to use LARC or recommend to a sexual partner increased after exposure to the OB-GYN clerkship. There appears to be a preference for the hormonal IUD over the copper IUD and implant.