Determinants of Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion among Female Youths in Western Regional Hospital, Nepal
Keywords:
unintended, pregnancy, induced, youthAbstract
Introduction: Youth are more susceptible to unwanted pregnancies; this may be explained by the fact that youths are facing various problems with regards to their reproductive health needs including age at marriage, contraceptive use, social, cultural and economic barriers in accessing the family planning services, their educational level as well as occupational opportunities. The study assessed the determinants of unintended pregnancies and induced abortion among female youths aged 15-25 years in Western Regional Hospital, Pokhara.
Methods: A cross sectional hospital-based study was conducted among 125 female youths visiting Western Regional Hospital, Pokhara. Ethical approval was taken before starting data collection. The respondents were interviewed using semi structured questionnaire. All the data collected in the proformas were entered and assimilated using SPSS 21, statistical analysis software. Descriptive statistics including chi square and p-value was applied.
Results: Among 125 female respondents, 72.8% of the respondents had unwanted pregnancy and 24% had history of abortion. Out of all the unwanted pregnancies, 86.7% had induced abortion with p-value <0.05, x2 = 67.41. The financial problems of the respondents were found to be the prime determinant ofunwanted pregnancy and induced abortion, proportion being 52.8% and 55.2% respectively, whereas to keep gap between the births (12.8%) was also associated. The association between use of contraceptive methods and unwanted pregnancy was not found to be statistically significant with the p-value of >0.05.
Conclusions: The prevalence of unintended pregnancy and induced abortion were high and most of the induced abortion was the result of unwanted pregnancy. The economic problem of the respondents was the prime factor associated with induced abortion.