Exploring the provision of LARC in Sexual Health Clinics v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the Provision of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) in Sexual Health Clinics: An Ethnography
IRAS ID
336111
Contact name
Kara Smythe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University Joint Research Office
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
ES/P00069X/1, ESRC PhD Studentship Award
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 8 days
Research summary
Access to contraception is a human right. However, sometimes people struggle to get the right type of contraception. A clinic visit is needed to access most types of contraception, so this study explores interactions between clinicians and people seeking contraceptive care in sexual health clinics . Specifically, the study explores how clinicians carry out the everyday work of discussing, providing, managing, and discontinuing contraception.
The study focuses on long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), contraception which may last from 10 weeks to 10 years. Although LARC works very well, there are unique challenges:
1. People may wait very long to access LARC.
2. Previous research shows that people may feel pressured to choose LARC.
3. Some people are more likely to be recommended LARC, for instance because of their age or the number or times they have been pregnant.
4. Some forms of LARC are placed inside the body, so people who want to stop using LARC need to see their clinician. Research has shown that some people face challenges when trying to stop using LARC.Participants in this study are clinicians.
Methods:
1. Observation of up to 300 clinical encounters with clinicians and people receiving contraceptive care.
2. Interviews with up to 30 clinicians to understand how they counsel and care for different groups of people, challenges they face in their work, and what works well.
3. Analysis of printed materials and policy documents to see how they refer to unintended pregnancy, contraception and LARC and how this might influence care.This project hopes to identify what works well in contraceptive care, and how things can be improved. The study will be carried out in Aneurin Bevan, Cardiff & Vale, and Hywel Dda University Health Boards. Clinicians will be recruited on-site.
This research is part of a PhD project.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
24/WA/0331
Date of REC Opinion
27 Nov 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion