Utilization of Emergency Contraception and Associated Factors Among Vocational College Female Students in Shashemene Town, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2018

Abstract

<i>Background</i>: Emergency contraception is a method to prevent unwanted or unintended pregnancies that could happen after unprotected sexual intercourse. It is a type of modern contraception that can be used following wrong use of contraception. In Ethiopia studies conducted in health facilities showed that unintended pregnancies and unprotected sexual intercourse are causing major reproductive health problems to adolescents. <i>Objective</i>: to assess the utilization of emergency contraception and associated factors among Technical and Vocational education training college female students in Shashemene town from June 10 – 30/2018. <i>Method</i>: an institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among Shashemene town Technical and Vocational education training college female students in June 2018. Collected data was entered into EPIINF version 7 and exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Association between dependent and independent variable was assessed using adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and p-value for statistical significance (<0.05). <i>Result</i>: a total of 476 female students were participated in our study out of these, one hundred forty six (30.7%) of the respondents knew presence of emergency contraception and 58 (12.2%) of them had encountered unprotected sexual intercourse. Out of those who encountered unprotected sexual intercourse 42 (72.4%) had used emergency contraception. However, 17 (29.3%) of the respondents who reported unprotected sexual intercourse had history of unwanted pregnancy. Monthly family income was significantly associated with the utilization of emergency contraception (AOR=4.41 (95% CI: 1.44-13.48)). <i>Conclusion</i>: Unprotected sexual intercourse and unwanted pregnancy were available among study participants. Knowledge of emergency contraception among the study participants was low.