Prevalence of Induced Abortion and Associated Factors among Wachamo University Regular Female Students, Southern Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: All over the world, women experience unwanted pregnancy and some of them seek to terminate the pregnancy and undergo induced abortion. In Ethiopia, abortion is still common and it is one of the contributing factors for maternal death. In 2008 it was estimated that, there were 382,000 induced abortions in Ethiopia and 52,600 women were treated for complications of abortion. Most of these women who tend to experience induced abortion are adolescents and youth with age below 25 years. The aim of this study was, to assess the magnitude of induced abortion and associated factors among Wachamo University regular female students.

Methods: A cross sectional study design was used. Data were collected from 461 randomly selected female students of Wachamo University by using pre-tested structured questionnaire from January to March, 2015. The collected data were entered using EPI info Version 3.5.1 and analyzed by SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics was computed and odds ratio along with the 95% confidence interval was estimated to identify factors associated with induced abortion using multivariate logistic regression. Level of statistical significance was declared at P- value less or equal to 0.05.

Results: In this study the prevalence of induced abortion was 5.9% (95% CI 3.8-8.0%), from which 9(33.3%) were conducted in an unsafe conditions. A total of 180(39 %) female students had sex and 58 (12.58%) of them get pregnant. Out of the total pregnancies, 53(91.4%) were unwanted. Based on the results from multivariate logistic regression, living out of campus [AOR= 6.78, 95% CI: (1.44, 31.97)], Substance use [AOR= 4.75, 95% CI: (1.12, 20.16)], and earning enough pocket money [AOR= 6.91, 95% CI: (1.62, 29.50)] were significantly associated factors with induced abortion.

Conclusion and Recommendation: A significant proportion of pregnancies among students in higher educational institution are terminated with induced abortion. Living out of campus, substance use and pocket money have significant association with induced abortion. The university and local health bodies should work together to address for prevention of unintended pregnancy and induced abortion.

Key words: Induced abortion, Abortion, Adolescent and youth