Prevalence and factors associated with unsafe abortion among females below 25 years in Fort Portal regional referral hospital, Fort Portal City, Western Uganda

Abstract

Unsafe abortion is defined by the World Health Organization as a method of terminating an unplanned pregnancy that is either performed by someone who doesn't have the necessary skills or in a setting that does not meet the bare minimum of medical requirements, or both. While the concept appears to be related to the procedure, the criteria of an unsafe abortion refer to unsuitable conditions that may exist prior to, during, or following an abortion. An unsafe abortion often has the following characteristics, however occasionally only a few or even all of them apply: Abortion is self-induced by ingesting traditional medications or dangerous substances, abortion is provoked by insertion of an object into the uterus by the woman herself or by a traditional practitioner, or by a violent abdominal massage, abortion is induced by an unskilled provider, frequently in unhygienic conditions, or by a health practitioner outside official/adequate health facilities, no pre-abortion counseling and advice, the wrong drug is provided for a medical abortion, or a pharmacist gives out the wrong medication with no instructions and no follow-up. A cross-sectional study design was deployed to generate the data for this study. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were utilized and the study population was women aged below 25years attending post abortion care services in Fort portal Regional Referral Hospital. According to this study, the prevalence of Unsafe Abortion was 15.7% and the socio demographic factors that was commonly associated with unsafe abortions were; age 17-20 years (52.0%), single marital status (55.2%), unemployment (58.6%), No formal education (53.6%), Residing in the rural area (55.2%), age of first sexual intercourse at 17-20 years (48.5%), Having at least one child (61.2%) and having a monthly income lesser than 100,000/=(56.7%). Unsafe abortion continues to be a major public health problem. The risk factors associated with unsafe abortion were; age, marital status, unemployment, Level of education, Place of residence, age of first sexual intercourse, Number of children and financial status. The recommendation of this study is to encourage the people who provide information about Unsafe abortion to package a right full information to the young women. And to add on these young women should obtain extensive knowledge about contraception methods and safe methods of abortion. Parents are recommended to practice family planning methods as it would increase the care of parents to their girl child and this will decrease on the number of unwanted pregnancies thus prevention of un safe abortion. Keywords: Unsafe abortion, WHO and pregnancy.