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Keeping silent about emergency contraceptives in Addis Ababa: a qualitative study among young people, service providers, and key stakeholders

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Women's Health, November 2014
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  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (69th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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2 X users

Citations

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17 Dimensions

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129 Mendeley
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Title
Keeping silent about emergency contraceptives in Addis Ababa: a qualitative study among young people, service providers, and key stakeholders
Published in
BMC Women's Health, November 2014
DOI 10.1186/s12905-014-0134-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Rosalijn Both, Fantawork Samuel

Abstract

BackgroundThe growing popularity of emergency contraceptives (ECs) among urban youth in Sub-Saharan Africa is accompanied by debates on morality and health. This study was situated in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and aimed to explore how these debates affect the way in which the product is promoted at a national level, how it is dispensed by service providers, and how young people access, purchase, and get informed about ECs.MethodsData were collected using qualitative methods: observations in pharmacies, administering semi-structured questionnaires to young people in pharmacies (N¿=¿36), informal interviews with young people (N¿=¿65), and in-depth interviews with service providers (N¿=¿8) and key stakeholders (N¿=¿3).ResultsKey stakeholders, uncomfortable with high sales of ECs, and service providers, worried about women¿s health, promiscuity and the neglect of condoms, stay silent about ECs. Most young people had used ECs more than once. In a context where premarital sex is morally sanctioned ECs provide young people with a way of keeping their sexual lives secret and they fit well with their sex lives that often entail infrequent sexual encounters. Young people preferred (but they are also left with no other option than) to seek information from discreet sources, including friends and partners, leaflets and the mass media. In addition, service providers misunderstood young people¿s purchasing behaviour, characterized by buying ECs quickly and feeling too embarrassed to ask questions, as a rejection of counselling. The resultant lack of information about ECs sometimes led to confusion about how to take the pills.ConclusionsThe attitudes and beliefs of key stakeholders and service providers result in a lack of clear information on ECs available to young people. This could be addressed by improving the information leaflet, providing clear instructions of use on blister packages, strategically distributing posters, and service providers adopting a more proactive attitude.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 129 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 128 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 27 21%
Researcher 14 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 11%
Student > Bachelor 7 5%
Unspecified 4 3%
Other 20 16%
Unknown 43 33%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 24 19%
Social Sciences 21 16%
Medicine and Dentistry 11 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 4%
Unspecified 4 3%
Other 14 11%
Unknown 50 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 June 2022.
All research outputs
#6,949,499
of 22,788,370 outputs
Outputs from BMC Women's Health
#738
of 1,809 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#78,086
of 262,696 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Women's Health
#18
of 34 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,788,370 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,809 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.6. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 58% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 262,696 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 34 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 47th percentile – i.e., 47% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.