Client satisfaction and experience of telemedicine and home use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion up to 10 weeks' gestation at British Pregnancy Advisory Service: A cross-sectional evaluation

Objective: Evaluate satisfaction and experience with telemedicine consultation and home use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion to 10 weeks' gestation. Study Design: Cross-sectional evaluation of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clients who used mifepristone and misoprostol at home from 11 May to 10 July 2020. We sent a text message with a link to a web-survey 2 to 3 weeks postabortion. Questions assessed satisfaction and experiences with a service model including telephone consultation and provision of medicines by mail or collection from the clinic. We used bivariate and multivariate regression to explore associations between client characteristics and outcomes. Our primary outcomes were overall satisfaction (5-point Likert scale) and reported contact with a health care provider. Results: A total of 1,333 clients participated. Respondents described home use of medications as straightforward (75.8%) and most were very satisfied (78.3%) or satisfied (18.6%) overall. Being very satisfied was associated with parity (aOR 1.53, 95% CI 1.09 & minus;2.14) and pain control satisfaction (aOR 2.22, 95% CI 1.4 4 & minus;3.4 4). Health care provider contact was reported by 14.7%; mainly to BPAS' telephone aftercare service (76.8%). Dissatisfaction with pain control (aOR 3.62, 95% CI 1.79 & minus;7.29) and waiting > 1 week to use mifepristone (aOR3.71, 95% CI 1.48 & minus;9.28) were associated with health care provider contact. If needed in the future, most would prefer consultation by phone (74.3%) and home use of mifepristone and misoprostol (77.8%). Conclusions: Satisfaction with telemedicine and home use of mifepristone and misoprostol is high. Most clients do not need health care provider support when administering medicines at home or post abortion. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Automated summary

The study found high satisfaction with telemedicine consultation and home use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion. Factors associated with health care provider contact included dissatisfaction with pain control and waiting more than one week to use mifepristone.