Prevalence and Abortion Methods Employed by Women Working in Flower Farms of Batu Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Each year, throughout the world, approximately 210 million women become pregnant and among these, 75 million pregnancies end in stillbirth, or spontaneous or induced abortion. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of abortion, its associated factors and preferences of health care usage among women of reproductive age working in flower farms of Batu town, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted from May 10 to 25, 2012 on 345 women of reproductive age who had history of pregnancy in the last six years while working in flower farms of Batu town. The study subjects were selected by simple random sampling. The data were collected by interviewer administered questionnaire for quantitative method. Quantitative data were coded and entered into and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Binary logistic regression was done to test association between selected independent variables and outcome variable. Results: Abortion was reported by 87(25.6%) of those women. Out of these, 34(39.1%) were induced and 53(60.9%) spontaneous abortion. Women whose last pregnancy were unwanted were about 7.9 times more likely to have an abortion than those women whose last pregnancy were wanted (AOR [95% CI] =7.9[2.3, 26.8]). Women who had two and above births in the last six years were more likely to have an abortion compared to women who had one birth (AOR [95% CI] =4.9[2.3, 10.7]). Conclusions: Having more births in the last six years and having the last pregnancy unwanted were predictors of abortion in this study. Reaching more target group in encouraging women to utilize family planning especially condom and seek appropriate health care when it is needed is recommended.