Prevalence and Determinants of Unintended Pregnancy among Women in South-Western Nigeria

Objective

To study the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy in urban and rural settlements in Southwestern Nigeria.

Design

A prospective cross-sectional study of women within reproductive age.

Setting

Community-based study of unwanted pregnancy was conducted in 2012.

Participants

They were women of reproductive age who had experienced unintended and/or unwanted pregnancies and they were randomly selected from rural and urban areas of Ogun state in Nigeria. Intervention: A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection.

Main outcome measure

The prevalence of unintended/unwanted pregnancy, associated factors including the views, perception and attitudes of community members in both urban and rural settlements and the pattern of help-seeking behavior on the problem.

Results

The age range of respondents was 15–48 years (mean age 31.2± 6.7 years). One thousand, two hundred and twenty-one (51.6%) of the respondents were married. The percentage of illiterate respondents was 3.5% in urban area and 4.1% in rural area. There was a statistically significant association between level of education and use of a method to avoid or delay pregnancy (p <0.001). The prevalence of unintended pregnancy was 35.9% while that of induced abortion was 33.5%. Quality of service was the most important factor in the choice of a place for pregnancy termination in urban and rural areas. Economic reasons were often cited as reasons women make use of abortion services.

Conclusion

Unwanted pregnancy constitutes a problem, even at the community level. The high contraceptive awareness should be translated to an increased use so as to bridge the large gap of unmet need.

Table 3

Respondents' Level of Education and Prevalence of Abortion in Urban Rural areas of Ogun State

Level of Education	No. of respondents		pre No. with history of abortion		Prevalence %
	Urban	Rural	Urban	Rural	Urban	rural
No formal education	41	17	5	2	12.2	11.7
Part Primary	35	13	6	2	17.1	15.3
Primary	46	17	9	3	18.5	17.6
Part Secondary	292	97	74	21	25.3	21.7
Secondary Completed	682.	228	228	69	33.4	30.7
Post-Secondary	689	210	299	74	43.4	35.2
Total	1785	582	621	171	34.8	29.4

Table 5

Place where pregnancies were terminated by respondents

Place	Urban		Rural		Total
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Private clinic/hospital	533	85.8	137	80.1	670	84.6
Nurse's home	11	1.8	2	1.2	13	1.6
Doctor's home	9	1.5	5	2.9	14	1.8
Chemist shop	19	3.0	9	5.3	28	3.5
Respondent's home	11	1.8	2	1.2	13	1.6
Maternity/Nursing home	25	4.0	4	2.3	29	3.7
Traditional healer	13	2.1	12	7.0	25	3.2
Total	621	100.0	171	100.0	792	100.0

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/In8Zha

By:   M A Lamina

Maternal and Fetal Health Unit, Department Of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria

Corresponding Author: Dr. Mustafa Adelaja Lamina ; Email: ku.oc.oohay@3002_ahpatsumeda

 

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