Emergency contraception counseling in a retail pharmacy setting: a pilot study

Introduction: Nonprescription emergency contraception (EC) is now available for purchase without age restrictions. This is a great opportunity for pharmacists to provide counseling to ensure that customers use EC correctly.

Objective: This pilot study explored the impact of student pharmacist counseling on customer knowledge of EC in a retail pharmacy setting and assessed customer satisfaction with the counseling.

Methods: Counseling was performed at 2 retail pharmacies during June and July 2012. Participants completed a 12-question pretest that measured baseline knowledge of EC prior to a 5- to 10-minute education session, followed by the same 12-question posttest. A follow-up test was conducted via telephone within 1 to 3 months after the counseling.

Results: Eighty-seven women participated with a mean age of 30.2 (standard deviation = 7.2) years. The average posttest score was significantly higher than the pretest score (11.5 ± 1.0 vs 8.5 ± 2.5; P < .001). The mean follow-up score (9.9 ± 1.1) was significantly higher than the pretest score (P = .014), which indicated retained knowledge. Participants reported being highly satisfied with the counseling session and strongly agreed that the counseling would help them use EC correctly.

Conclusion: Student pharmacist-provided EC counseling increased participants' EC knowledge both immediate and long term. This study suggests that EC counseling is feasible and valued by customers.