Advanced Provision of Emergency Contraception: Utilizing Technology to Increase Prescription Fill Rates
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01401816. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Eighty-five percent of the 750,000 teenage pregnancies per year in the United States are unintended (Guttmacher Institute). Approximately half of all teenage pregnancies end in the birth of a child; the remaining proportion end in either abortion (30%) or miscarriage (20%). It has been estimated that if Emergency Contraception (Plan B) was used after every contraception failure, it could prevent 50% of unintended pregnancies and 60-70% of abortions annually. Previous studies have showed the effectiveness of emergency contraception decreases with time after intercourse; the sooner it is taken-even if it means a matter of hours-the more effective it is in preventing pregnancy. Based on previous studies, it is clear that relying on obtaining emergency contraception on the same day or even the day after unprotected intercourse is not guaranteed. For example, approximately 27% of pharmacies called by the adolescent mystery caller did not have the medication available the day of the call and almost all of the pharmacies not stocking the medication would take greater than 24 hours to obtain it through their ordering system. Thus, the concept of advanced provision of emergency contraception has been proposed to assure that the medication can be taken as soon as possible. Although this practice is known to be safe and has not shown any association with increased sexual risk or behaviors, it is unclear how often/if adolescents will fill a prescription for a medication that is not needed at the time of a medical encounter. The investigators propose a randomized pilot study (n=60) of a text-messaging intervention that aims to increase the rate at which prescriptions for emergency contraception are filled. Based on practice norms in the BMC Adolescent Center, sexually active female adolescents (ages 13-21) in both the control and intervention groups will be provided a prescription for emergency contraception. The intervention group, however, will receive follow-up text message on their phone reminding them to fill the prescription. Boston Medical Center Health Plan will provide prescription fill data regarding the prescriptions written at the time of enrollment. Approximately 6 weeks after enrollment, all study participants will be contacted for a follow-up survey.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01401816
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 60 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 13 Years to 21 Years
- Sex
- Female
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jun 30, 2011
- Primary completion
- Jan 31, 2012
- Completion
- Apr 30, 2012
- Last update posted
- Jul 9, 2012
2011 – 2012
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Medical Center | Boston | Massachusetts | 02118 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01401816, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 9, 2012 · Synced Sep 10, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01401816 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.