Family physicians' practices regarding Norplant
Tafelski, T.; Taylor, C.
Journal of Family Practice 39(5): 452-456
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0094-3509 PMID: 7964543 Document Number: 429001
In 1993, 242 family practice physicians belonging to the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians completed a questionnaire aimed to examine the extent to which family practice physicians currently offer and insert the contraceptive implant system, Norplant. 130 family practice physicians (54%) offered Norplant to their clients. 60 (25%) actually inserted the implants. Physicians who offered Norplant were more likely than those who did not offer it to be younger (38.8 vs. 47.8 years; p 0.0001), to be in practice for a shorter period of time (9.2 vs. 18 years; p 0.0001), to be female (32% vs. 15%; p 0.003), and to be board certified (96% vs. 83%; p 0.003). They were also more likely to have more than 30% of their practice consist of premenopausal women (36% vs. 20%; p 0.01), to offer obstetric care to patients (26% vs. 3%; p 0.0001), and to perform at least two procedures other than Norplant insertion (46% vs. 26%; p 0.003). The training approaches of the 60 physicians inserting Norplant themselves included training course or workshop (35%), self-taught (32%), taught by another family physician (20%), and trained by an obstetrician-gynecologist (15%). The leading reasons for not offering Norplant among the 112 physicians (46%) who did not offer Norplant were side effects (19%), unfamiliarity with Norplant (16%), personal or religious reasons (14%), too expensive for patients (13%), and not appropriate for patients (13%). 88% of the physicians offering Norplant were satisfied with its performance. 95% of those who inserted Norplant themselves were satisfied. Overall, the most common patient groups identified that would most benefit from Norplant included youth with compliance problems, women not wanting children within 5 years, older women unsure about sterilization, and unreliable pill takers, and women who cannot use estrogens. These findings suggest that family physicians can insert Norplant and thus broaden the scope of their services.