Unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion among female youths: a case study of Temeke district

Abstract

Background: Unwanted pregnancy is the major cause of induced abortion, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity in the world. Hundreds of thousands of women become pregnant without intending to, and many of them decide to end the pregnancies into abortion. Youth are more susceptible to unwanted pregnancies; this may be explained by the fact that premarital sexual activity is very common and reported to be on the rise in all parts of the world. This could be explained by the fact that youths are facing various problems with regards to their reproductive health needs including contraceptive use e.g. lack of information, misinformation, fear of side effects as well as social, cultural and economic barriers in accessing the family planning services, economic problems, violence as well as cultural and social beliefs. Objective: The study assessed the magnitude of unwanted pregnancies and induced abortion among female youths aged 15-24 years in Temeke district. Specifically the study was trying to examine the association between the magnitude of unwanted pregnancies and induced abortion among youths with other factors like contraceptive knowledge and use, socio demographic characteristics, socio cultural factors and sexual factors. Methodology : A cross sectional study, was conducted among 454 youths aged 15-24 years in Temeke district in Dar es Salaam using a Semi structured questionnaire , the respondents were being interviewed after they or their parents/guardian give a consent to the Prime investigator or research assistants. Results: The mean age for fist sexual intercourse was 18 years. 57 % of the study respondents agreed to have used contraceptives, 33 % of all the pregnancies had unwanted pregnancy and 26 % of them ended up into abortions, out of all the abortions 87 % were induced. Out of all the abortions 74 % were the result of an unwanted pregnancy with P value of 0.001.Single youths were found to have more likely hood of having unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion with the proportion of 78 % (P=0.001) and 59 % (P=0.001) respectively. Students were more likely to have unwanted pregnancy, 83% (P =0.001) and induced abortion with the proportion of 83% (P =0.004).Conclusion: The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion were high, and most of the induced abortion was the result of unwanted pregnancy. There was low utilization of contraceptives among female youths but its association with the rate of unwanted pregnancy was found not to be statistically significant. Female youths who were single, unmarried and students were found to have high likelihood of having unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion. Recommendation: I would recommend that the Ministry of health and Social welfare in partnership with other implementing partners , local and international to focus their strategies to the ins school programming , addressing the need of the in school female youth on reproductive health issues. Different partners in partnership with the Government to address the issue of unemployment among female youths, to improve their economic status, hence for them to be able to take care of themselves as well as their children and to conduct a qualitative study in the community especially rural settings in order for them to have an in depth discussion with regard to unwanted pregnancies and induced abortion in order to compliment the findings from his study. This is because this study was conducted in semi urban area of which the results could be different from the rural settings.