ASSESSMENT OF MAGNITUDE OF INDUCED ABORTION AND ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG PATIENTS AT ST. PAUL HOSPITAL, MICHU CLINIC

Abstract

Abstract Background: All over the world, women experience unwanted pregnancy and some of them seek to terminate the pregnancy and undergo induced abortion. According to WHO, worldwide unsafe abortions were estimated to be 21.6 million, almost all in developing countries. From the fragmented studies conducted in Ethiopia, we can see that the prevalence of induced abortion and its negative consequences are increasing from time to time. Even though, evidences on the prevalence of unwanted pregnancies, induced abortion and factors that are responsible for unwanted pregnancies and induced abortions are essential in improving reproductive health service to women information regarding this is hardly available. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of induced abortion and some of the associated risk factors. Objective: To assess the magnitude and associated risk factors of induced abortion among patients who visited St. Paul hospital michu clinic during the study period. Methods: This study was a retrospective cross sectional analysis of patients who visited st Paul hospital Michu clinic department during the study period. The study was conducted from July 01, 2016 to December 31, 2016.Two hundred fifty eight women’s charts was selected by simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected from charts of patients in the study population by using data extraction checklist. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20 for counts and percentages. Results: among 258 women ninety three or 36% of them had safe abortion. Out this 116 (45.1%) of the women were aged between 20-24 years. Eighty five (32.9%) of them are students and 80(31%) of them are unemployed. The most common reasons given by the women’s who undergone safe induced abortion were, unable to afford cost for the baby,28 (30.1%), rape, 23(24.7%) and fatal conditions which was not compatible with life for 18(19.4%). out of 93 women Eighty-four (90.3%) of them agreed, opted and used one of the contraceptive method after the abortion conducted. Among the determinant factors the age of the women, marital status, occupation, number of pregnancies and number of children the women had, found to be significantly and independently associated with induced abortion (P< .05 for each factor). Conclusion and recommendations: this study showed abortion is highly prevalent among women aged between 20-24, students and those who were unmarried. Unable to afford cost for the baby, rape and fatal conditions which was not compatible with life are the most common reasons given by the women. After safe abortion conducted majority of the women agreed, opted and used one of the contraceptive methods. So that it’s better to focus expansion of health education and family planning service.