Journal des soins de santé des femmes
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Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Safe Abortion among Female Students of Mizan-Tepi University, South West Ethiopia

Sintayehu Mekuriaw, Robel Mesay, Adissalem Dereje, Abera Kumalo, Mulugeta Feyissa and Andualem Henok

Background: Safe abortions have been practiced throughout the world. From the fragmented studies conducted in Ethiopia, abortion and its consequences are increasing from time to time. Significant proportions of maternal deaths are occurring due to complications of unsafe abortion and these abortions are due to the responses to unwanted pregnancies.
Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards safe abortion among female students of Mizan-Tepi University, Southwest, Ethiopia.
Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 female students at Mizan-Tepi University to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of safe abortion. The data was collected from second to fifth year students. Pre-test was done before the actual data collection. Students were included in the study from the selected departments by stratified sampling technique then lottery method was used to select the sample from each collage until sample size was fulfilled. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.
Result: Majority of the respondents 382 (90.52%) reported that they had ever heard about safe abortion. More than half 123 (58.37%) of them reported mass media as their main sources of information. Among the respondents, 225 (53.31%) know the reason to attend safe abortion and 418 (99.05%) know about family planning methods. Many of the respondents 313 (74.17%) had positive attitude towards safe abortion and 128 (40.84%) said safe abortion is necessary to prevent school disruption. From the respondents 5 (1.18%) reported that they ever practiced safe abortion and 3 (60%) of them mentioned health center as place where the procedure was performed. From those who practiced abortion 1 (20%) of them complain problem after the procedure and that complain was pain.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Majority of the respondents had positive attitude towards safe abortion and they reasoned out that safe abortion is crucial to prevent school disruption. Majority of female students had ever heard about safe abortion where their major source of information was from mass media and Majority of the participants knew the reason why safe abortion is important. Therefore, University Student Clinic is highly recommended to supply free family planning and safe abortion services for female students in the University, especially condom.