Prevalence and Associated Factors of Unsafe Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age Group in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2017: A Community-based Cross-sectional Study

Background: Globally approximately one in five pregnancies ends in an induced abortion, and it was one of the direct cause of maternal death in the world, unsafe abortion accounts for 13% of all maternal deaths and as much as 25% in some countries and developing world. This emphasized the need to solving the problem of abortion.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of unsafe abortion among women of reproductive age group in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia, 2017.

Methods: A community-based cross sectional study design was conducted among women of reproductive age group in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia. Data were collected by using a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and systematic random sampling technique was used, the data was entered and analyzed with SPSS version 20. Frequency distribution, and the bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression was used to cheek the association of unsafe abortion with the dependent variables by using 95%CI.

Results: This study found that the overall prevalence of unsafe induced abortion among women of reproductive age group was 3.9% [95%CI (1.3-7.1)] and marital status of the respondents was significantly associated with unsafe abortion [AOR = 6.9 (1.88-25.4)].

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the high prevalence of unsafe abortion in this area and unmarried women were more likely to procure unsafe abortion. This study can be helpful for making health policy in this area and also may be applicable to some area. Providing reproductive health education for unmarried women as well as a community based health educations might be vital to prevent unsafe abortion.