Utilization of emergency contraception by female students in Kampala International University, Uganda

Abstract

Introduction: Unintended pregnancy is a major challenge to the reproductive health of young adults especially in developing countries. Emergency contraception prevents unintended pregnancy hence averting abortion, maternal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to assess utilization of EC by female students in Kampala International University (KIU), Uganda. Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted between the months of April and May 2018 among sexually active female students of KIU main campus, Kampala. Multistage sampling method was used to select participants for the quantitative study and purposive sampling techniques were used for the qualitative study. Prevalence ratios (PRs) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used as measures of association between EC use and associated personal and providers’ factors. The PRs were obtained using generalized linear models with Poisson as family and a log link function including robust standard errors. All these analyses were conducted with Stata version 13.0. Data from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were transcribed, coded, and categorized into similar themes for analysis. Results: A total of 784 female students participated in the study and 513 met the inclusion criteria for analysis. The mean (SD) age was 22.7(2.1) years with majority (88.5%) aged between 20 and 24 years old. Majority of respondents had ever heard about of EC (98.1%) and approximately one third (32.6%) reported EC use with postinor 2 (79.5%) being the commonest method among students who had ever heard about EC. Factors associated with higher EC use were, age, tribe and fertility desire while factors such as; year of study, marital status, employment status and drinking alcohol were associated with lower prevalence of EC use. Overall, 27% reported ever being pregnant and 33 % of ever pregnant respondents reported to have terminated the pregnancy. Focus Group Discussions highlighted fear of side effects among other factors as a major hindrance to using EC. In-depth interviews revealed negative attitudes from some providers who believed that EC promoted promiscuity. Conclusion: The study findings show that students at KIU have general knowledge of EC and there is relatively higher proportion of EC users than other studies indicate.