Assessment of Prevalence and Reasons for Termination of Pregnancy at Jimma University Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Increasing legal access to abortion is associated with improvement in sexual and reproductive health. Conversely, unsafe abortion and related mortality are both highest in countries with narrow grounds for legal abortion. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and reasons for terminations of pregnancy at Jimma university teaching hospital. Methods: A retrospective cross sectional study was conducted at JUTH from June15-28, 2015, a total of 194 cards of women who came for abortion services from January 2012-January 2014 were included by systematic random sampling with inclusion and exclusion criteria. Chi square (x2) test calculated to analyze the statistical association between abortion types and other variables, p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: According to this study, of the total calculated 194 sample size from clients admitted for both spontaneous and induced abortion 125(64.4%) were spontaneous and 69(35.6%) were induced abortion. 28(14.4%) of incomplete spontaneous abortion occurs between age of 25-years.one of the most common complication in this study was sepsis 23(11.9%). This study revealed that the main reason for induced abortion was due to rape and economic problem which holds 30(15.5%) and 16(8.2%) respectively Occupation and marital status are strongly associated with types of abortion with p-value of P<0.001. Conclusion and recommendation: The study concludes that majority of abortion were spontaneous abortion which almost hold all septic abortion and majority of induced abortion were teenage, single students and most of them presented after 2nd trimester of pregnancy which increases the complication of abortion. Thus, health education on dangers of induced abortion, spontaneous abortion and utilization of contraceptive methods services to all women are highly recommended.