Abstract
Emergency contraception is of public health importance for preventing unintended pregnancies. Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of female students towards emergency contraceptive pills. Methods: Quantitative cross-sectional survey of 220 fulltime female students of the Kaduna polytechnic, over the age of 18 years, by administering adapted questionnaires randomly. Results: 14.6% of students had ever heard of ECP, most commonly postin or brand (54.8%) and 4.4% were aware of the correct timing of use. Majority (97.7%) had poor knowledge, poor attitude (80%) and low use (15.2%) of ECP. Bivariate analysis showed religion, “ever had sex” and use of regular contraception were associated with awareness of ECP (p 0.05). Age, class level, religion, marital status, ever had sex, ever had an unintended pregnancy and ever had an abortion were associated with attitude to ECP (p<0.05). While marital status, ever had sex, current number of children, desired number of children, regular use of contraception, and ever had an abortion were associated with practice/use of ECP (p<0.05). Logistic regression showed religion to be predictor of knowledge of ECP (p<0.05); “ever had sex” in the past as a predictor of attitude of ECP (p<0.05). Conclusion: Students had poor knowledge of ECP, poor attitude towards ECP and use of ECP was low. Increased uptake of ECP may be achieved using appropriate reproductive health messages emphasizing its benefits through healthcare professionals, teachers and peer educators.
Highlights
210 million women get pregnant, 80 million are unplanned and 46 million get aborted [1,2]
Increased uptake of Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) may be achieved using appropriate reproductive health messages emphasizing its benefits through healthcare professionals, teachers and peer educators
Emergency Contraception (EC) has a potential to curb the menace of unintended pregnancies and offers female students a chance to complete their studies smoothly
Summary
210 million women get pregnant, 80 million are unplanned and 46 million get aborted [1,2]. 76 million out of 182 million annual pregnancies are unintended [3], 66% of these among non-users of contraception. In Nigeria, 50% of women aged 15-49 reported unplanned pregnancies resulting in unsafe abortion in 10% [9]. Unintended pregnancies are associated with smoking, drinking, physical abuse [6], depression [11], school dropout or disruption [12], poor antenatal attendance and obstetric outcomes, low birth weight and developmental deficits [6]. Poverty may become a vicious cycle as offspring themselves may have unintended pregnancies, and become victims of physical abuse [13,18]
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