Factors Associated With Contraceptive Ever- Use Among Women Who Present With Induced Abortions In Mulago Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: In Uganda, 297,000 induced abortions are carried out annually with half of these by untrained professionals. More than 500,000 Ugandan women have unintended pregnancies annually and a sizeable proportion is due to poor use of modern contraceptives. In Uganda 30% of married women, and 52% of sexually active unmarried women are using contraceptives with an unmet need for contraception of 34%. We determined the factors associated with contraceptive ever- use among women with induced abortions in Mulago hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in December 2014 to February 2015. Data was collected from 249 women with induced abortions using a pretested interviewer administered questionnaire. Univariate analysis was done to calculate contraceptive ever-use prevalence. We did bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression to determine the factors which were independently associated with contraceptive ever-use. Results: Of the 249 women in the study, 158 (63.4 %) had ever used contraceptives and 48.8% stopped due to side effects. Factors that were independently associated with contraceptive ever-use were: being a student (AOR=0.32 95% CI=0.14- 0.73), being counselled on contraceptives at health unit (AOR=4.36, 95% CI=2.05-9.27), knowing that contraceptives prevent unwanted pregnancies (AOR=2.60, 95% CI=1.36- 4.95) and older age (AOR=1.13, 95% CI = 1.10- 1.23). Conclusion and recommendation: The contraceptive ever-use prevalence among women with induced abortions was high (63.4%) and of these half stopped contraceptives due to side effects. Older age and being counselled by a health worker were associated with ever use where as being a student was associated with non-use of contraceptives. There is thus a need to scale up effective counselling by health workers especially among young women and students plus management of side effects to prevent undesired discontinuation.