Interventions for long-term prevention of unintended pregnancy in United States emergency departments: A scoping review.

Authors

Ben Meyer, Mirinda Ann Gormley, Sergiy M Pustogarov, Jennica Siddle, Arwen B L Declan, Angel Rochester

Published in

The American journal of emergency medicine. Volume 109. Pages 162-176. Jun 29, 2026. Epub Jun 29, 2026.

Abstract

The emergency department (ED) represents a novel venue to initiate contraception, yet little is known about the availability, activities, and outcomes used to assess ED-based contraception programs. This scoping review seeks to identify, describe, and summarize the outcomes used to evaluate these programs in the US.
PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and MEDLINE identified programs from peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources. Eligible programs evaluated an intervention aimed at unintended pregnancy prevention in a US ED. Two reviewers independently performed a systematic selection of title, abstract, and full-text before performing data extraction. Percent agreement (PA) assessed reviewer agreement. Characteristics, activities, and outcomes were summarized descriptively. Results reporting followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews.
Investigators reviewed 1978 titles (PA = 98.6%); 56 abstracts (PA = 84.4%) and 37 full text sources (PA = 78.4%). Twenty sources underwent data extraction (PA = 90.6%). All programs targeted adolescent females, two included females up to 45 years, and two included males. Implemented activities included pamphlets or videos (n = 5), contraception counseling (n = 4), primary or gynecological care referrals (n = 5), ED initiation of long-acting reversible contraceptives (n = 4), and provision of safe-sex-items (n = 2). Outcomes assessed included pregnancy status three months post-intervention (n = 6), contraception initiation in the ED (n = 2) and post-ED intervention (n = 7), and contraception use at last intercourse (n = 4).
Few ED-based programs exist to prevent unintended pregnancy in the US. Existing programs vary in activities and lack standardized outcome measures. Most studies evaluated only short-term outcomes limiting evidence for long-term prevention via contraception initiation within the ED. Continued study in diverse geographic regions with larger sample sizes and standardized long-term outcomes is necessary to better inform effectiveness and scalability.

PMID:
42456190
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jul 2026.

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