Abstract:
Background- Induced abortion is a frequent consequence of unintended pregnancy and can
cause serious negative health effects, permanent disabilities and even maternal death.
Regardless of the cause, unintended pregnancy and its negative consequences can be
prevented by access to contraceptive services, including emergency contraception and by
respecting the contraception conventions as well as by respecting the rights of women.
Objective- To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice on emergency contraceptive
among women seeking post abortion care in health facilities of Mekelle town, Tigray region,
Northern Ethiopia, 2011.
Methods- A cross sectional facility based study consisting of 279 individuals was conducted
from March 1 up to April 15, 2011 supplemented with quantitative and qualitative studies in
health facilities of Mekelle town. Purposively selected Clients seeking post-abortion care and
health professionals in all the health institutions who are allowed to provide post abortion
were included in qualitative study. Data were entered into a computer and statistical analysis
was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 statistical
software. For all statistical significant test, the cutoff value set is p<0.05 and binary and
multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio of
KAP on emergency contraceptive.
Result – Among clients who ever heard about modern contraceptive, 57 (24.9) clients heard
about emergency contraceptive. All study participants mentioned only pill type of emergency
contraceptive. Form total study participants, only 45 (16.1%) were with good knowledge on
emergency contraceptive. Among clients who ever heard about emergency contraceptive, 35
(61.4%) had positive attitude towards emergency contraceptive but only 9 (3.2%) had utilized
it. Women with educational status of grade 9-12 were 3 times more likely to be non
knowledgeable on EC than college or university students (AOR=3.42, 95% CI, 1.53-7.66).
Conclusion and recommendation- The study showed that, there is low level of knowledge
and ever practice of emergency contraceptive method. So regional health bureau, NGO and
should give especial attention to create awareness about emergency contraceptive.
