Knowledge, attitude and factors associated with induced abortion among female students ‘of Private Colleges in Ambo town, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion. In Africa, nearly half of all abortions occur under the least safe circumstances. In Ethiopia 35% of women obtaining induced abortions service. Therefore, thisstudy aims to assess knowledge, attitude, and associated factors towards induced abortion serviceamong female students of private Colleges in Ambo town, Ethiopia, 2022. Methods An Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 15, 2022, to February 15, 2022, among college students in Ambo, Ethiopia. Data were collected from 631 female students using semi-structured self-administered questionnaires by a systematic sampling method. We collected data on demographics, Institutional factors: facility policy and regulation, sexual experience, knowledge, and attitude. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were done to identify the association of dependent and independent variables using SPSS, version 26, at 95% of confidence interval by adjusting for confounding factors. Finally, variables with p-value ≤ 0.05 were taken as factors associated. Results All the participants gave their responses.Among the participants 279 (44.2) have good knowledge while the majority 352 (55.8%) of the students had poor knowledge about induced abortion. Age [AOR = 4.64, 95% CI (2.95,7.30)], Marital status [AOR = 5.24, 95% CI (3.16, 8.69)], religion [AOR = 0.48, 95% CI (0.26,0.81)], Year of study [AOR = 4.51, 95% CI (2.88,7.08)], Monthly earn/income [AOR = 2.07, 95% (CI 1.40,3.07)], Ever had sex [AOR = 1.92, 95% CI (1.26,2.92)] and urban residence [AOR = 1.87, 95% CI (1.26, 4.35)] were factors associated with knowledge of students towards induced abortion. Regarding attitude, 377 (59.7%) of students had good attitude towards induced abortion. Marital status [AOR = 2.30, 95% CI (1.30, 4.0)], and Religion [AOR = 0.47, 95% CI (0.10, 2.23)] were factors significantly associated with attitude towards induced abortion. Conclusion More than half of the participants have poor knowledge while majority of the students have a good attitude toward induced abortion. Since majority of the students (55.8%) have poor knowledge about induced abortion: health education, short course training, panel discussions and communication programs for youth on induction of abortion services is crucial.

Identifying Profiles of Support for Legal Abortion Services in Zambia: A Latent Class Analysis

“…A theoretically informed set of demographic, social, and behavioral factors-including age (Bantie et al 2020;Cresswell et al 2016); educational attainment (Kavanaugh et al 2013;Mosley et al 2017); household wealth (Thomas, Norris, and Gallo 2017); place of residence (Holcombe, Berhe, and Cherie 2015;Scoglio and Nayak 2023;Smith et al 2022); religiosity (Biggs et al 2023;Gutema and Dina 2022;Silva et al 2009); and pregnancy/fertility experiences (Moore et al 2015;Woodruff et al 2018)-were identified a priori from the extant literature and assessed independently of other covariates in mixture modeling. Measured predictors of latent class membership included parity (nulliparous vs. multiparous); future fertility intentions (desires no [more] child [ren] or undecided vs. desires a[nother] child [ren]); current contraceptive use (any modern contraceptive use vs. no contraceptive use or traditional methods only); number of family planning (FP) message sources (i.e., radio, television, newspaper/print media, community events) recalled in the past three months (range: 0-4); religiosity, measured continuously using a three-item, 5-point (definitely not true to definitely true) scale assessing the depth and magnitude of participation in religious activities (Cronbach's alpha: 0.88) (Gallagher 2018); and perceived immorality of abortion (endorsement of the statement, "Abortion is immoral"), measured ordinally on a 5-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree).…”

“…2022); religiosity (Biggs et al. 2023; Gutema and Dina 2022; Silva et al. 2009); and pregnancy/fertility experiences (Moore et al.…”

Factors associated with terminated pregnancies in Sri Lanka: A case study of the Sri Lankan Demographic and health survey (DHS) 2016

“…Further, a woman's marital status, her decision-making regarding family size, and the gender composition of her existing children contribute to her vulnerability to unsafe abortions [21,24,25]. Furthermore, attitudes of abortion were found to be influenced by additional factors, including ethnicity, religion, age, the number of children a family has, individual exposure, and personal experiences related to the issue [26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Developing a comprehensive abortion prevention program for couples based on I-change model: study protocol for a mixed method research

“…Induced abortion is characterized by the deliberate termination of pregnancy and represents a prevalent reproductive phenomenon, with an annual occurrence exceeding 73 million instances [1]. During the period from 2015 to 2019, it is estimated that approximately 48% (equivalent to 121 million) of all pregnancies globally were unintended.…”