Assessment of the Magnitude and Factors Associated with an Unintended Pregnancyamong Currently Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Background: Unintended pregnancy is a pregnancy that is either mistimed or unwanted at the
time of conception. Unintended pregnancy is an important public health issue in both developing
and developed countries because of its negative association with the social and health outcomes
for both mothers and children.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors to unintended
pregnancy among currently pregnant women attending antenatal care in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods : A facility based cross sectional study design was used to assess the prevalence and the
factors to unintended pregnancy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study was carried out in ten
health centers selected from ten sub cities of Addis Ababa. The health centers from each sub
cities and the study subjects from each health center were selected using a convenient sampling
technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administered by interviewers.
Logistic regression was used to assess the effect of independent variables on unintended
pregnancy.
Results: All of the 375 surveyed currently pregnant women responded to the interview. From all
respondents more than one-third 145 (38.7%) reported that their current pregnancy was
unintended. From all unintended pregnancies (141(97.2%) and 4(2.8%) of them were mistimed
and unwanted respectively. Some factors in this study were significantly associated with
unintended pregnancy like: age at first marriage, desired number of children, and number of
pregnancies (p-value <0.05).
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that (38.7%) prevalence of unintended pregnancy
in the study population. In addition to that, there were several aspects of socio-demographic
characteristics like: marital status, educational status and husband or partner communication
about family planning found to be associated with unintended pregnancy. Hence, interventions
need to be designed to prevent unintended pregnancy by focusing on the identified factors so that
the maternal mortality and morbidity as well as the need for abortion are decreased and the
overall well-being of the family is maintained and enhanced.
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Assessment of the Magnitude