Comparing self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control in predicting intention to continue using oral contraceptives pill: a confirmatory analysis

Objective (s): Several psychological and behavioral factors might affect intention to continue using oral contraceptives pill (OCP). Understanding and knowledge of these factors are practical strategy to increase intention of continuing use of OCP and improve women’s health. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of self- efficacy (SE) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) in predicting intention to continue OCP use. This was a cross-sectional study of 180 women aged 15-49 years old new users of low dose (LD) pills attending family planning centers in Ahwaz, Iran.. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.80. Perfroming a confirmatory analysis we compared the optimized model with the original model. Both models showed a good fit for the data, but the optimized model [SE (X2/df)= 1.47 P= 0.0001 RMSEA=0.059 AIC=324] had a better fit than the original model [PBC (X2/df)= 1.62 P= 0.0001 RMSEA=0.068 AIC=361]. Also the optimized model can predict 35% of intention while the original model predicted 24% of intention. The findings suggerst that in educational programs based on theory of planned behavior (TPB) to increase the intention of continuation of using OCP, self-efficacy is superior to perceived behavioral control.