Table 1

Characteristics of the primary papers referred to in this review

Reference	Quality	Data collection method	Sample size	Gender	Age	Ethnicity	Geographical location
Allen (2004)11	Poor	Focus groups and interviews	n=28 School nurses grades E,F,G,H	NS	NS	NS	Two localities: one urban, one mixed urban/rural
Baraitser et al. (2003)16	Good	Interviews + staff survey open question data	n=46 Young people n=22 Staff	M = 4 F = 42	12 <16 years; 19 16–19 years; 15 20–25 years	8 White British, 8 Black Caribbean, 6 Black British, 6 Black African	NS
Barrett & Harper (2000)72	Good	Interviews	n=24 18 community pharmacists, 6 GPs	M = 21 F = 3	Mid-20s to late-50s	16 Asian origin, 8 White	Three Health Authorities in South Thames region
Bell & Millward (1999)30	Good	Interviews	n=8 Women who had asked for EC at a GP practice	NS	18–34 years	NS	South West England. Practice located in a city centre and close to a university
Bissell & Anderson (2003)25	High	Interviews + focus groups	n=35 Pharmacists	M = 14 F = 18	18 years to late-50s	White British, South Asian, Chinese, Black British, British Asian	NS
Bissell et al. (2006)36	Good	Interviews	n=44 Community pharmacists supplying EHC	M = 32 F = 12	Early 20s to late-50s	Ethnic mix of South Asian, White British and Chinese	Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham
Bloxham (1997)43	Poor	Case study design Interviews	n=25 Staff from community health service, health promotion, youth and community service, and 4 secondary schools	NS	NS	NS	Medium sized town in the North of England
Burack (2000)59		Survey	n=1045 School students	NS	13–15 years	NS	NS
Chambers et al. (2002)68		Workshop + survey	n=66 Professionals n=55 Young people	36% M	12–20 years	NS	Mostly from deprived wards
Coleman & Testa (2008)58	Good	Interviews	n=50 Young people	NS	16–23 years	Black and minority ethnic	London
Craig & Stanley (2006)38	Poor	Multiple (3) case studies. Group discussions + individual interviews	n=63 Group discussions. School students and those outside mainstream provision n=116 Individual interviews with ‘transient’ young people, young parents and professionals	NS	12–18 years	NS	‘Rural hinterland’ areas of seaside towns in the Midlands, North of England and South of England. Described as having relatively high teenage conception rates
Croghan (2006)57	Poor	Mixed method. Interviews + survey	n=8 Young people	M = 5 F = 3	16–21 years	1 White Irish, 1 mixed race, 1 Afro-Caribbean, 3 Pakistani	NS
Donovan et al. (1997)53		Survey – part of an evaluation of a novel sex education programme	n=4481 Students from 30 schools	51.6% M	15–16 years	NS	NS
Donnelly (2000)24	Good	Focus groups	n=35 Attendees of youth units. Users and non-users of existing sexual health services	M = 12 F = 23	15–25 years	NS	Northern Ireland. Area of above average rate of teenage pregnancy
Fairhurst et al. (200444)	Good	Interviews	n=44 GP or primary care nurses n=22 Women who had received EC supplies	NS	NS	NS	Lothian Scotland
Fallon (2003)35	Good	Interviews	n=5 Nurses in 3 A&E departments	NS	NS	NS	North West England
Folkes et al. (2001)26	Good	Interviews	n=27 Young women, use of EHC varied from never to 9 times	NS	18–29 years	NS	Urban area, South West England
Free et al. (2005)49	High	Interviews	n=30 Young pregnant women or mothers	NS	16–25 years	21 White British, 4 Afro-Caribbean, 2 Black British, 3 White other	London
Free et al. (2002)48	Good	Interviews	n=30 Women recruited from GPs, hostels, youth groups, FPCs, schools	NS	16–25 years	NS	London
French et al. (2006)9	Poor	Interviews + telephone interviews	n=11 Key informants involved in developing the National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV	NS	NS	NS	NS
French (2002)67	High	Interviews and focus groups + clinic observation	n=32 Interviews n=28 Focus groups with clinic clients, school pupils n=18 Observations nurses, doctors, health visitor	M = 28 F = 32	16–21 years	NS	Camden and Islington, London
French et al. (2005)28	High	Interview + focus groups	Interviews n=75 Young people n=33 Focus groups with professionals or community representatives n=33 young people n=11 parents	M = 30 F = 48	13–21 years	Bangladeshi, Indian, Jamaican	London, Manchester, Birmingham
French et al. (2007)14		Survey	n=8879 Young people	50% M	13–21 years	NS	NS
Garside et al. (2002)60	Poor	Survey + focus groups	18 focus groups of teenagers, 4–9 participants in each group	NS	NS	NS	Devon
Garside et al. (2000)63		Survey	n=235 GPs	NS	NS	NS	NS
Griffiths et al. (2008)29	Good	Interviews and focus groups	n=19 Interviews with minority ethnic individuals n=103 Focus group participants	NS	16–21 years	NS	9 sites across England with high residential occupancy and higher than average deprivation scores
Hagley et al. (2002)40		Survey	n=587 Students from 19 schools	F = 214 M = 373	Average age 16 years	NS	NS
Hayter (2005)45	Good	Mixed method. Survey + interviews	n=20 Clients of sexual health nursing outreach clinics	NS	13–18 years	NS	Doncaster
Higginbottom et al. (2006)41	High	Interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews	n=19 Focus group participants young mothers n=50 Interview participants young mothers n=6 Interviews with young fathers n=10 Interviews with grandmothers n=16 Service providers interviewed by telephone	NS	Up to 19 years and in 20s	African-Caribbean origin, multiple ethnicity, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Yemeni, Somali, Turkish	Bradford, Sheffield, London
Hoggart (2006)64		Interviews + focus groups	n not specified (between 37–47) Focus groups n=13 Interviews with 12 young mothers + 1 young person who had a termination n=25 Interviews with professionals from different agencies	NS	14–21 years	Mixed ethnicity	NS
Ingram & Salmon (2007)13	High	Mixed method. Interviews + attendance data + survey	n=18 Clinic attendees	F = 15 M = 3	14–18 years	NS	Areas of social deprivation with high rates of teenage conceptions + suburb of 1 large town + 1 small rural town
Jolley (2001)70	Poor	Survey (some free text questions) + interview	n=10 Nurses working in a gynaecology unit	NS	NS	NS	Nottingham
Jones et al. (1997)56	Good	Focus groups	n=61 School pupils	NS	14–15 years	NS	Cardiff
Lester & Allan (2006)22	Good	Focus groups	n=32 Students at 3 schools	M = 16 F = 16	14–15 years	NS	Area of high chlamydia prevalence
Mackereth & Forder (1996)46	Poor	Focus groups	n=40 Young people	NS	11–16 years	NS	Gateshead
Mackie et al. (2002)32	Poor	Interviews. 10 in person, 3 telephone interviews	n=13 staff 5 representatives of the local health board, 4 from the local FP service, 4 representing pharmaceutical retailers	NS	NS	NS	NS
Mason (2005)66	Good	Interviews	n=8 5 nurses, 3 counsellors	F	NS	NS	North West England, one major city centre and one in small town service. Described as mixed population with areas of high deprivation and pockets of wealth
McCann et al. (2008)65	Poor	Survey, interviews, focus groups	n=22 Key informants. 4 focus groups, 1 practice nurse, 3 school nurses	NS	NS	NS	Rural area of Northern Ireland with high percentage of young people under 20 years and rising rate of STI
Morrison et al. (1997)10	Poor	Interviews	n=368 Clinic clients and other young people	More F than M	Mean age 17 years	NS	Glasgow. 55% Carstairs Deprivation Category 1–4 and 45% Category 5–7
Nwokolo et al. (2009)7		Peer designed survey	n=744 Students at 6 secondary schools and one PRU	294 M 450 F	11–18 years	NS	NS
Parkes et al. (2004)37		Survey	n=5747 Students at 47 schools	NS	15–16 years	NS	NS
Pearson & Pearson (2003)23	Good	Focus groups	n=75 Both users and non-users of services	100% M	13–21 years	NS	England. Urban, semiurban and rural locations
Pearson (1995)39		Survey	n=167	NS	Mean age 17 years	NS	NS
Pitts et al. (1996)33	Good	Interviews	n=19 5 GPs, 5 practice nurses/FP nurses; 4 school nurses; 5 community medical officers	NS	30–55 years	NS	NS
Powell (2008)55	Good	Survey and focus groups	n=57 3 secondary schools and 6 out of school youth settings	M = 37 F = 20	12–19 years	NS	Cardiff, southern area of the city described as encompassing the 16 most deprived districts of the city
Reeves et al. (2006)69		Survey	n=360 3 schools	M = 173	15–16 years	97% White	NS
Ross et al. (2007)42		Survey	542 community interviewees, 202 clinic patients	49% F	16–25 years	60% White	NS
Salmon & Ingram (2008)31	Good	Mixed method. Survey + interviews with service providers/managers and focus groups with young people	n=222 10 schools n=44 Individuals from 3 schools attended focus groups or interviews, both users and non-users of the service n=7 Interviews with 2 staff managers, 2 nurses, 3 youth workers	F = 27 M = 17	Years 7, 8, 10, 11	NS	Bristol, reported as being deprived areas with high incidence of teenage pregnancy
Samangaya et al. (2007)54		Survey	Young men	100% M	16–28 years	42% Pakistani, 18% Bangladeshi, 13% Indian, 11% Black Caribbean, 9% Black African, 7% mixed race	NS
Schubotz et al. (2003)50	Good	Interviews	n=15	NS	14–25 years	NS	Northern Ireland
Sixsmith et al. (2006)21	Good	Mixed method. Interviews + survey	n=6 Young people from youth clubs, parks, residential streets, school districts, nightclubs/pub, shopping areas	M = 4 F = 2	14–19 years	NS	Greater Manchester
Stanley (2005)62	Good	Interviews	n=467 Young people excluded from school, transient resident young people, young people from minority ethnic groups and with special needs n=46 Interviews with young parents n=40 Interviews with local professionals	NS	12–17 years	NS	3 seaside towns and associated rural hinterlands in the Midlands, North and South of England
Stone & Ingham (2003)52		Survey	n=747	88.8% F	Median age 17 years, mean age 19 years	95.4% White	NS
Thomas et al. (2006)61		Survey	n=295 Students from 4 schools	48% M	13–14 years	NS	NS
van Teijlingen et al. (2007)47	Good	Focus groups	n=32	50% M	12–13 years & 16/17 years	NS	Aberdeen and Edinburgh
Wellings et al. (2007)2		Survey	n=169 GPs n=148 Nurse practitioners n=4 NS	74% F	74% under 50 years	NS	31% working in a socially disadvantaged area
Ziebland & Maxwell (1998)27	Good	Survey + interviews	n=53 Women attending for EC	NS	Mean age 21 years	NS	Oxford and London
Ziebland et al. (1998)34	Good	Telephone interviews	n=76 GPs, M = 55, F = 21	NS	NS	NS	3 health authorities
Ziebland et al. (2005)51	High	Interviews	n=22 Women who had received a supply of EHC	NS	NS	NS	NS

A&E, accident & emergency; EC, emergency contraception; EHC, emergency hormonal contraception; F, female; FP, family planning: FPC, family planning clinic; GP, general practitioner; M, male; NS, not stated; PRU, pupil referral unit; STI, sexually transmitted infections.