Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Associated Factors of Emergency Contraceptive Pills among Female Youths in Mekelle City, Tigray Region, North Ethiopia

Abstract

For girls and young women aged 15–19, pregnancy and childbirth is the number one killer. It’s the cause of 50,000 deaths of teenage girls every year. Ensuring that adolescent girls are able to use suitable contraception to delay the age at which they first become pregnant is a key part of the family planning challenge. Around 16 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth each year. This study tries to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraception among female youths. And this will help in reducing a number clandestine abortion among young, unmarried youths. An institution-based cross-sectional study with quantitative and qualitative among 401 female youths was conducted using interviewer questionnaire. To assess knowledge, attitude and practice on emergency contraceptive among female youths who visits youth friendly health services in Mekelle city. The study was conducted from Nov 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013. The collected data were cleared, categorized, and coded. The cleaned data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16.0 software. Data were presented using frequency tables. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequencies and percentages were used to describe and summarize the data. Associations between female youth characteristics (age, and educational status) and the answers to the questions were tested and a p value of < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Out of total 401 respondents, 37.9% of respondents had heard of a product that could be used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. Among the nonsexual active (NSA) participants (n = 72), 81.9% reported that they had never heard of the ECP or the morning-after pill. Eighteen percent of the NSA had heard of ECP. In contrast, 139(42.2%) of the sexually active (SA) participants said that they had heard of the ECP or the morning-after pill and 190(57.8%) reported that they had never heard of the ECP. The source of information was associated with the level of knowledge and found that youths whose source of information from health institution (AOR=4.505(1.071, 18.954), P<o.o4) were more likely to have good knowledge as compared to other sources. Respondents with educational status degrees were more likely to have good knowledge than others. Knowledge about EC had significant statistical association with practice/utilization (AOR=9.48(1.540, 58.364), P<.015). On emergency contraceptive but the others do not show an association (p = 0.05).The knowledge and practice on emergency contraceptive is very low. Generally majority of respondents had negative attitudes regarding EC; most of them believe that EC are unsafe for one's health. Few knew about availability, dosage, and timing. Even where the concept of emergency contraception is known, knowledge of accurate use of the method is very low. Keywords: emergency contraception (EC), emergency contraceptive pills (ECP), female youths Cite this Article Abdelkadir S, Adik MTS, Ferede S, Gebremichael H. Assessment of Knowledge and Associated Factors of Emergency Contraceptive Pills Among Female Youths in Mekelle City, Tigray Region, North Ethiopia. Research & Reviews: Journal of Health Professions. 2015; 5(1): 7–21p.