With the increasing population in the Philippines, the government has been advocating the use of contraceptives which include the modern contraceptives such as oral contraceptive pills (OCP). However, the knowledge and compliance on the usage of OCPs are insufficient thus leading to pill-taking mistakes. This research is therefore conducted to determine the effect of daily text messaging as compared to standard practice on the knowledge about and compliance in taking oral contraceptives. This study utilized a non-randomized, non-blinded, controlled experimental research design. The researcher had two groups involved in the study; control group vs. experimental group in which there were a total of thirty-five (35) respondents. The experimental group received daily text messages for 3 months while the control group received routine care. A pre-intervention questionnaire was given to assess knowledge and compliance. The post-intervention evaluation was done right after the intervention phase and one month after. Both groups had higher mean knowledge scores as compared to their pre-intervention scores. Post-intervention results revealed a statistically significant increase in knowledge in the experimental group. Preceding the intervention, only 6 (35.29%) were compliant users among the experimental group while only 4 (22.22%) users were compliant in the control group. Subsequently, the compliance rate of the experimental group after the intervention phase increased to 15 (88.24%) OCP users. Among the control group, there was no significant improvement with the compliance rate. The researcher concludes that text messaging is effective in improving the knowledge and compliance in taking OCPs.

Keyword: Text messaging Oral Contraceptives