Abstract
BackgroundUnintended pregnancy has been a major reproductive health challenge in resource poor settings including Ethiopia. It has adverse consequences to the mother, child and the health sector’s resources. Understanding the extent of unintended pregnancy and the factors associated is crucial to devise evidence based interventions. The analysis was aimed at assessing the unintended pregnancy prevalence rate among pregnant women and the factors predisposing to unintended pregnancy.MethodsThis secondary data analysis was done on women’s dataset from the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). A total of 1267 pregnant women were included in the analysis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed using SPSS software to identify the factors associated with unintended pregnancy. Odds Ratio with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was computed to assess the association of different factors with unintended pregnancy.ResultsThe overall prevalence of unintended pregnancy was found to be 24%: those who wanted it at a later time and not at all accounted for 17.1% and 6.9%, respectively. The unintended pregnancy rate ranged from 1.5% in Afar Regional State to 39.8% in Oromiya Regional State. Women who knew the timing of ovulation had a 45% reduced chance of unintended pregnancy (OR (95% CI): 0.55 (0.35, 0.85)). Ever use of family planning, presence of five or more born children, and two or more births in the past five years were associated with unintended pregnancy (OR (95% CI): 1.79 (1.31, 2.45), 2.36 (1.01, 5.49) and 2.00 (1.12, 3.58), respectively). ConclusionsA significant proportion of the current pregnancies were found to be unintended with significant variations among the different regions. Women already burdened with higher fertility were suffering from unintended pregnancy. Family planning programs need to concentrate on the highly affected regions and target women with higher fertility to reduce the level of unintended pregnancy at national level.
Highlights
The concept of unintended pregnancy has been employed by demographers and public health practitioners in addressing women’s health
The analysis is aimed at assessing the prevalence of unintended pregnancy and the factors associated with unintended pregnancy among pregnant women in the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS)-2011 dataset to avail evidence for future decision making
Ethiopia is administratively divided into nine regional states and two city administrations that are further divided into 16,253 Kebeles, the smallest administrative units in the administrative structure of the country
Summary
The concept of unintended pregnancy has been employed by demographers and public health practitioners in addressing women’s health. The pre-natal adverse effect includes medical complications and maternal mortality secondary to complicated abortion. For those pregnancies not terminated, they might encounter violence, delayed ante-natal care initiation and unsafe delivery service utilization. In Ethiopia, a nationwide survey conducted at interval of 5-6 years revealed a decreasing trend in the percentage of unwanted pregnancies: 17 %, 16% and 9% in 2000, 2005 and 2011 respectively. The analysis is aimed at assessing the prevalence of unintended pregnancy and the factors associated with unintended pregnancy among pregnant women in the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS)-2011 dataset to avail evidence for future decision making
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
