Abstract
Purpose: To describe rates of and reasons for follow-up among adolescents and adults receiving contraceptive implants in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Methods: Retrospective comparison of patient-initiated implant-related contacts during the 6 months postinsertion among adolescents (110) and adults (154) who had implants placed at a FQHC network. Results: Forty percent of adolescents and 26% of adults initiated follow-up (P =.016). Bleeding changes and discussing removal were the most common reasons for follow-up for both groups. Adolescents (5.5%) and adults (9.0%) had similar removal rates (P =.348). However, among patients who discussed implant removal, adults were more likely to have removals compared with adolescents (P =.002). Conclusions: Other FQHCs may anticipate a similar experience to ours, where adolescents may be more likely than adults to initiate implant-related follow up, with removal rates of less than 10% at 6 months. Further study of physician decision making and patient autonomy regarding implantable contraception removal requests is warranted.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 20-25 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Primary Care and Community Health |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Adolescent
- Community health centers
- Contraception
- FQHC
- Implantable contraception
- Primary care