Neglected Research Findings in Family Planning and Reproductive Health

Many important research findings never make it into the actual practice when it comes to reproductive health services. Rose of The INFO Project Blog has posted an interesting and good survey which needs to be spread around the blogosphere more in order to get a bigger number of responses:

To improve service delivery and policies, research should be put into practice. However, some important research findings that could improve reproductive health services have not been incorporated widely into policies and programs.

For example, the World Health Organization advises that family planning clients using oral contraceptives receive up to one year's supply of pills (13 cycles), or as many pill packs as feasible, at the first visit. Research has found that women given a full year's supply of pills are more likely to use the method effectively, without interruption, than women given only one to three pill packs at a time. This practice is rare in many countries, however.

Neglected research findings such as the one above will be discussed in the forthcoming Population Reports issue, "New Findings on Contraceptives." We welcome you to share your opinions with us to help us decide which neglected findings we should discuss in the report.

Do the survey and comment on the post. And put this on your blog and ask your readers to do this survey as well.