Can contraceptive counseling increase uptake of more effective methods, improve consistency/accuracy of method use, and decrease gaps in switching?

Six months following initial patient post -counseling interviews, patients in both control (treatment as usual) and intervention (new counseling protocol) conditions were contacted by phone to complete a brief questionnaire evaluating their current method choice, their accuracy of use of the method, and gaps in use due to method switching during the past 6 months. Analyses were pursued to determine if the patient’s primary method changed over the course of the six months, if the new method had higher or lower effectiveness than the method choice at baseline, and if the patient had periods of time over the past six months when she was not protected from becoming pregnant. For pill and shot users, missed pills/shots over the six months were assessed.  Final results are pending further analysis to be completed in advance of the meeting and in time to be included in the published abstract.  However, a few preliminary analyses suggest positive results will be reported.  For example, preliminary analyses indicate significant increases among previous pill users of uptake of IUCs. Individuals in the control were significantly more likely to use Plan B in the past six months, indicating that they were more likely to have a pregnancy scare than those patients in the intervention group. Shot users in the control groups were significantly more likely to miss a scheduled shot in the past six months. Comprehensive behavioral analyses will be reported.