Who Forgets to Take the Pill? The Thai Experience

Rural women with modest or no education are capable of using oral contraceptives correctly and may even do so more often than educated urban women, according to the reports of 1,170 current pill users in the Thai Demographic and Health Survey who were asked whether they had forgotten to take a pill in the last month, and, if so, how many pills they had forgotten. Bivariate and multivariate analysis of pill use and background characteristics revealed that rural women, especially those working in agriculture, are less likely to forget to take a pill than are their urban counterparts. Poorly educated women are also less likely to forget to take a pill than are women with at least a secondary education, although they are more likely to forget to take three or more pills within a cycle when they do forget. Correct pill use is associated with older age, longer duration of method use and desire for no more children. Women who purchase pills from drugstores or from government sources are also more likely to forget to take them than are women who obtain them free from government outlets.