Objective: To determine compliance with the contraceptive patch (Ortho Evra/Evra) overall and by age among women in North America and to compare rates of perfect use with those of an established oral contraceptive.
Design: Data were pooled for three contraceptive studies in which women participated for up to 13 cycles; the subset of centers in North America was used in this analysis.
Setting: 76 North American centers.
Patient(s): Healthy women 18-45 years of age.
Intervention(s): In all studies, the patch regimen was three consecutive 7-day patches (21 days) followed by 1 patch-free week per cycle.
Main outcome measure(s): Perfect use for the patch or oral contraceptive, defined as 21 consecutive days of drug-taking followed by a 7-day drug-free period; for contraceptive patch users, no patch could be worn for more than 7 days. Oral contraceptives were used according to package labeling.
Results: For all contraceptive patch users in North America (n = 1,785), perfect use was consistent across age groups. The percentage of cycles with perfect use of the patch ranged within age groups from 88.1% to 91.0%. In the comparative study conducted only in North America, perfect use was also consistent across age groups for the patch (n = 812), but rates of perfect use for the oral contraceptive (n = 605) differed significantly by age.
Conclusion(s): Age did not affect compliance with the patch among all North American women studied. In a comparative study of women at North American centers, compliance with the weekly contraceptive patch was significantly better than with an established oral contraceptive. The contraceptive patch is uniformly easy to use across all ages.