Prevalence of Contraception Counseling for Patients With Relevant Chief Complaints in Emergency Department [ID 1477]

INTRODUCTION: Numerous studies have identified the emergency department (ED) as an area for contraception access. Patients and ED providers are interested in expansion of such care; however, there is no standardization of contraceptive counseling in the ED. In this exploratory study, we sought to examine relationships between contraception discussion and various demographic and clinical factors. METHODS: This is a single-site retrospective chart review. Patients who presented to the ED between 2018 and 2021 with chief complaints and received a negative pregnancy test were included. Data was presented as median with interquartile range and compared using t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum tests. P ≤.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 763 patients were included. The mean age was 29.48 (+8.35), 47.9% were White, 44.6% were Black, and 70.1% had public insurance. Contraception was not discussed in 75.2% of encounters. When contraception was discussed, the mean age was significantly lower ( P <.0001). Insurance coverage was slightly associated with contraception discussion ( P =.0276), with Medicare being more common in the contraception-discussed group. There was no significant difference in contraception discussion detected with respect to race, ethnicity, or body mass index. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Our data demonstrates that contraception is not discussed in most patient visits in the ED. These findings suggest that although contraception discussion is influenced by age and insurance type, other demographic and clinical factors do not significantly differ based on contraception discussion. Future studies are warranted to investigate if contraception discussions are initiated in the ED, subsequent ED visits within 1 year are reduced.