A mixed methods evaluation of online provision of oral contraceptives
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of online provision of oral contraceptives to measure: accuracy of self-reported height, weight and blood pressure; essential information transfer and user experience.
IRAS ID
213856
Contact name
Paula Baraitser
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College Hospital NHS Trust Foundation
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
One in six pregnancies in Britain are unplanned costing the NHS £193,200,000 in 2010. Improved access to contraceptive services can reduce unintended pregnancy. Online contraception, available 24 hours per day from mobile phones, can increase access to contraception. The combined oral contraceptive (COC) is the most popular prescription contraceptive in the UK, used by 16% of all women aged 16-45 in the UK. Online prescription of the COC requires accurate data on height, weight, blood pressure and medical history. Safe online prescribing assumes accurate reporting of this data. To date there has been no research to verify this.
The study aims to describe the agreement between online and face-to-face assessment of eligibility for the COC. It will explore user experience of measurement and submission of bio-metric data and views on the importance on the importance of this data for safe prescribing.
We will recruit 730 participants in total - 365 users of the online contraceptive service and 365 users of face to face services. From users of the online service we will document demographic information, e-health literacy, patient activation and knowledge about the COC via an online questionnaire. We will extract the data submitted on height, weight, blood pressure and smoking from the online clinical record and check these metrics during a research visit within 3 months of recruitment. We will interview a purposive sample of 20 online service users to document their experience of using this service.
From the 365 participants who were prescribed the COC in clinics we will record knowledge of the COC, patient activation level and e-health literacy via an online questionnaire and compare this data with that from the online service users.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0181
Date of REC Opinion
8 May 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion