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.
