Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Population: women (adolescents and older)

Outcomes: exploring barriers to and facilitators for women choosing and accessing an appropriate and preferred method of contraception.

Study type: quantitative and qualitative studies of any design published in the last 10 years.

Setting: We restricted to studies conducted in the UK, to ensure that the findings are relevant to UK settings.

We also selected articles presenting interventions aimed at supporting women to choose or access appropriate and preferred methods of contraception in order to examine their contents for intervention mapping of the behavioural analysis.

Studies assessing the clinical effectiveness of specific contraceptives.

Studies on the use of contraceptives for purposes other than contraception. For example, hormonal contraceptives to regulate menstruation; condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Studies that focussed on emergency contraception and abortion.

Studies from outside the UK.

Articles lacking methods required for quality appraisal (such as conference abstracts).