[General practitioners' (GPs) practice regarding the line to take in case of missed pill]

Abstract

Objective: To explore general practitioners' (GPs) practice face of missed pill and prevention of such missings.

Material and method: Twenty-five GPs from Sarthe Department (Western France) took part in semistructured interview during which they expressed themselves on the prevention of missed pill and its consequences.

Results: Twelve out of 20 physicians stated positively that their female patients often forget their pill. However, they noted that missed pill was seldom a reason for phone call or consultation. During the initial pill prescription, GPs insisted on how to take the pill (14/25) as well as advice in case of a missed pill (22/25), their availability (12/25) and the instruction leaflet (16/25). But only five quoted the importance of involving women in the choice of contraception. On prescription renewal, only nine out of 25 ask their patients about observance defect and eight out of 25 repeated the information. If patients asked for further explanation, only two doctors out of 25 had practices in line with the French National Authority for Health's (HAS) recommandation guidelines.

Conclusion: GPs' attitudes are partly due to a lack of practice's knowledge in primary and emergency contraception methods. It seems essential to promote GPs' training and to take into account their expectations and needs. Furthermore, female patient must be actor of the choice of her contraceptive method in order to improve compliance and, therefore, effectiveness.