Knowledge, attittude and practice about safe Abortion among boloso bombe secondary high school Girls, wolayta Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a powerfully formative time of transition to adulthood, roughly concurrent with the second decade of life. Globally, As many as 2.5 million adolescent women seek abortion each year, and nearly 70,000 women die from complications related to unsafe abortion, of which almost half are women under the age of 25. Five million out of an estimated total of 50 million induced abortions worldwide occur in women aged 15-19 years. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice and associated factors of adolescent girls about safe abortion in Boloso Bombe high school in October 2013GC Materials and Methods: School based cross- sectional study design was used and the study was done from September 28 to October 29, 2013. A systematic random sampling technique was used to collect data by a pre tested self administered questionnaire from 278 adolescent girls. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0, bivariate logistic regressions was done to identify candidate covariates for multivariable logistic regression. Back ward variable elimination method use for identification of the candidate covariates for the final model. Result: -Out of the sampled 278 adolescent girls, 261 responded to the questionnaire yielding a response rate of 93.9%. One hundred sixteen (44.4%) were knowledgeable about safe abortion while 145 (55.6%) were not knowledgeable about safe abortion. Those adolescent girls who had history of pregnancy were 1.37 times more likely knowledgeable about safe abortion than those who did not have pregnancy history: [AOR (95 %CI) = 1.37 [1.14, 2.81] and those girls who have boy friends were 1.61 times more knowledgeable about safe abortion than those who did not have: [AOR (95 %CI) 1.61(1.02, 2.36]. Out of the total 247adolescents who had heard about abortion, (53%) had favorable and 47% had unfavorable attitude towards safe abortion. Educational back ground of fathers’(Grade 9-12), educational back ground of respondents and previous history of experiencing abortion showed statistically significant association with attitude of adolescents towards safe abortion; [AOR (95 % CI=3.01(1.33,8.95)], [AOR (95 %CI) = 0.42 (0.25,0.75)] and [AOR (95 % CI) = 1.90 (1.42,2.38)]respectively. Total of 49(18.8%) of the adolescents had become pregnant, 34 (13.0%) had faced termination of pregnancy and out of those 34, 21 of them had practiced safe abortion. Conclusion and recommendation The knowledge of adolescent girls about safe abortion is insufficient. Sexual and reproductive health education through health extension programs and other school based behavioral change communication channels in the form of mini- media outlets; school health clubs for peer discussion should be secured in school.