Fasting blood glucose, blood pressure and body mass index among combined oral contraceptive users in Chencha town Southern Ethiopia, 2019.

Background: The use of contraceptives has become prevalent among women in Ethiopia. Oral contraceptive use has been suggested to trigger changes in glucose metabolism, energy expenditure, blood pressure, and body weight, among various populations and ethnic groups. Objective: To elucidate the pattern of fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, and body mass index among combined oral contraceptive pills users compared to controls. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed. A total of 110 healthy women using combined oral contraceptive pills were recruited as cases. Another 110 healthy age and sex-matched women not using any hormonal contraceptives were recruited as controls. A study was conducted between October 2018 and January 2019. Data obtained was entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23 software packages. One-way ANOVA was used to identify the variation of variables in relation to the duration of use of the drug. The Results: Fasting blood glucose level among oral contraceptive users (88.55 ± 7.89 mg/dl) was higher than fasting blood glucose level among oral contraceptive non-users (86.00 ± 9.85 mg/dl) with a Conclusions: Use of combined oral contraceptives was associated with higher fasting blood glucose (+2.9%), mean arterial pressure (+2.5%), and body mass index (3.9%) compared to controls.