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Patient-Centered Contraceptive Counseling: Evidence to Inform Practice

  • Family Planning (A. Burke, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Patient centeredness is an increasingly recognized aspect of quality health care. The application of this framework to contraceptive counseling and care has not been well described. We propose a definition of patient-centered contraceptive counseling that focuses on and prioritizes each patient’s individual needs and preferences regarding contraceptive methods and the counseling experience. Guided by this definition, we review recent research that has advanced our understanding of how patient-centered contraceptive counseling can be delivered in practice, focusing on how women decide on a contraceptive method, their preferences for counseling, and their experiences with counseling. This research provides evidence that women have diverse preferences around attributes of their contraceptive methods and value personal, supportive relationships with their family planning providers that focus on their individual preferences. We discuss the implications of this research for practice and review recent interventions that incorporate patient centeredness to varying degrees.

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Correspondence to Edith Fox.

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Christine Dehlendorf, Edith Fox, Lauren Sobel, and Sonya Borrero declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies by the authors involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Family Planning

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Dehlendorf, C., Fox, E., Sobel, L. et al. Patient-Centered Contraceptive Counseling: Evidence to Inform Practice. Curr Obstet Gynecol Rep 5, 55–63 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13669-016-0139-1

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