Women's perceptions of the value of a contraceptive method selector: Implications for clinical care

Background: Contraceptive care is a key preventive healthcare service. Selecting a contraceptive method is an important decision involving a number of considerations that can affect a woman’s ability to successfully use the method. It can also been challenging for healthcare providers to convey unbiased, factual information about contraception in a limited amount of time. Objective: To better understand patients’ perceptions of the value and utility of a recently-designed contraceptive method selector at an integrated healthcare system. Methods: We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with female patients 15-29 from an integrated healthcare system in the San Francisco Bay Area. Patients had previously used a contraceptive method or were looking to start or switch to a new method. Interviews explored women’s decisional needs related to choosing a contraceptive method, perceptions of the value of the decision-making tool, and preferences for using the tool in relation to their clinical care. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis will be used identify common themes in the participants’ experience. Data will be coded using Atlas.ti. Results: Salient themes related to 1) patients’ specific perceptions of the contraceptive method selector, 2) aspects of the selector that patients found most valuable, 3) aspects of the tool that patients deemed inadequate, 4) patients’ needs for specific types of information, and 5) patients’ thoughts on using the tool in relation to clinical visits will be presented. Conclusions: Contraceptive decision-making tools can serve as a complement to provider counseling.  Implications for integrating contraceptive decision-making tools into clinical care will be discussed.