Background
Unintended pregnancy
poses a major health problem on female students in higher educations. One of
the key interventions to reduce unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion as
outlined in the national youth strategy is making emergency contraception (EC)
available for these risky population. However, despite its availability in many
countries, EC has failed to have the desired impact on unintended pregnancy
rates and its utilization is limited in colleges and universities. The
objective of this study was to assess factors associated with utilization of
emergency contraception among female students in Mizan-Tepi University (MTU),
south west Ethiopia.
Methods
A cross-sectional,
institution based study was conducted from March 10–30, 2014. Multistage
sampling technique was used to select the participants for the quantitative method
whereas; purposive and volunteer sampling techniques were used for the
qualitative study. Quantitative data were cleaned, coded and entered into
Epi-data 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20:00. Binary and multiple
logistic regression analysis were done to determine the association between the
use of EC and the predicator variables. Data from focus group discussion were
transcribed and translated to English then coded, and categorized into similar
themes.
Result
A total of 489 female
students were participated in the quantitative study making a response rate of
90.6 %. The finding shows that 46.3 % of them have used EC following
unprotected sex. Female students’ knowledge about EC [AOR: 3.24; 95 % CI
1.32, 7.98], age at first sexual intercourse (i.e. ≥20 years) [AOR: 4.04;
95 % CI 1.72, 9.52], history of pregnancy [AOR: 3.12; 95 % CI 1.34,
7.24] and previous use of regular contraceptives [AOR: 5.01; 95 % CI 2.23,
11.27] were found to be significant predictors of EC utilization. In the
focused group discussion, a total of 32 female students were participated and
the result shows that lack of knowledge about EC and fear of being seen by
others (information disclosure) were reported as main factors for not using EC.
Conclusion
The study shows that the
level of EC use was low. Female students’ level of knowledge about EC, age at
first sexual intercourse, previous use of regular contraceptives and history of
pregnancy were major predictors of EC utilization. Therefore, designing
strategies to enhance EC utilization by increasing female students’ level of
awareness on EC is recommended.
Below: Reasons for non-users of emergency contraception, among female students with unprotected sex, Mizan-Tepi University, South West Ethiopia
Full article at: http://goo.gl/3tBUZ8
Department of
Midwifery, Wolkite University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, PO Box
07, Wolkite, Ethiopia
Department of
Nursing and Midwifery, Jimma University College of Public Health and Medical
Sciences, PO Box 1355, Jimma, Ethiopia
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv
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