Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Emergency Contraceptives use Among Negelle Health Sciience College Female Students, South Eastern, Ethiopia: a Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study, 2021

Abstract

Background: Emergency contraceptives is the only method women cause to prevent pregnancy after they have had unprotected sexual intercourse. About 7.2% of women will be sexually assaulted by a stranger and depending on the region; 23-36% of women will experience unwanted sex from an intimate partner. Objective: To ascertain knowledge, attitude and practice towards emergency contraceptive use among female students in Negelle college of health sciences. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study design was carried out July 29 /2021 to September 31/2021.Data was collected through employing semi-structured self-administered questioner, and then the collected data was cleared, coded and analyzed by statistical packages for social sciences 26.0 version statistical software. Descriptive statistics were used for variables using statistical parameters of frequencies, and percentages, and were presented in table format. Factors with a bivariate test value ≤ 0.05 were included. Results: The study was conducted on total sample of 152 participants, among the respondents, majority 131(86.2%) of them age was >20 years old. Above half 92(60.5%) of the study subjects was heard the cornerstones merit of contraceptives was to prevent pregnancy.82(53.9) respondents were agree about when having unintended sexual intercourse, they take ECPs.60 (39.5%) of the study subjects were agree about fear of side effects hinder them from not using ECPs.85(56.0%) were used EC pills after unprotected sexual intercourse. Age greater than twenty years and unmarred female students was predictors to have good knowledge about EC pills. Conclusion and recommendations: A majority of this study subjects were came from urban area, and majority of the study subjects were bought EC from pharmacy from pharmacy and shop. Knowledge, attitude and practice towards EC among female students were high. Health care workers should have to escalate awareness of the usage of emergency contraceptive methods among female students.