Our research, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, demonstrates a new psychometrically robust scale measure of patient contraceptive agency during a clinic visit, the Contraceptive Agency Scale (CAS). We asked participants recruited from nine clinic sites how they would rate how they would rate their agreement with statements like “My provider helped me choose a birth control method that could work for me” and “My provider wanted to make my birth control decisions for me.” This scale can be used to evaluate patient agency in both clinical care and research to ensure autonomy is preserved. This is the first rigorously tested scale to assess coercion in contraceptive care, as well as patient agency.
Read more about the study findings on the UCSF Bixby Center website.