KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICES AND PERCEPTION RELATED TO ABORTION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Abortion-related complications among young persons in the institutions constitute a public health problem in many developing countries including Nigeria. Previous studies on the antecedent factors relating to abortion among young persons focused more on secondary school students and out-of-school youth, thus leaving the phenomenon among Nigerian university undergraduates relatively under-studied. The study was therefore designed to determine the knowledge practices and perception related to abortion among undergraduates in the University of lbadan, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study design was adopted and a three-stage random sampling technique was used to select 587 consenting respondents from halls of residence, blocks and rooms, semi-structured self-administered questionnaire which included questions on socio-demographic characteristics, 24- point knowledge on abortion, 10-point perception scales and abortion related-practices was used for data collection. Knowledge scores of ≤8, >8-16, >16 were categorised as poor, fair and good respectively. Perception scores of <5 and ≥5 were categorised as pro-choice (in favour of abortion) and pro-life (against abortion) respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test and Chi-square with level of significance set at 0.05. Age was 21.1±3.2 years and 59.1% were males. Nearly half of the respondents (47.0%) had heard about the Nigerian abortion-related laws and only 13.0% could correctly state the laws as the "penal code" and "criminal abortion-related laws". Respondents' knowledge scores was 10.9±4.2. Respondents with poor, fair and good knowledge relating to abortion were 27.9%, 64.7% and 7.4% respectively. The mass-media (38.1%) topped the list of their sources of information. Significantly more males (43.7%) than females (33.5%) had ever had sexual intercourse. A significantly higher proportion of respondents aged 21-25 years (57.3%) compared with those aged 16-20 (28.0%) and 26-31 years (14.7%) had ever had sex. Ages at sexual debut for males and females were 18.2±2.7 and 19.3±2.4 years respectively with a significant difference. The number of partners current Sexual Partners (SP) among respondents was 1.3±0.8. Prevalence of un-intended pregnancy was 35(43.8%) among female who have had sexual intercourse and among this cohort all had experienced abortion at least once. Over a quarter male respondents (27.6%) had ever impregnated a female and among this sub-group most 43(88.4%) had ever encouraged their SP to procure abortion. Private clinics (31.9%) topped the list of the places where respondents procured abortion. Many (58.0%) of respondents had pro-life perception while (42.0%) had pro-choice perception. The perception of 65.5% males and 56.5% females was that abortion is unacceptable in all circumstances. There was a significant difference between the knowledge scores of abortion for male (10.3±4.3) and female ( 11.6±3.7). Knowledge of abortion among majority of the respondents was fair and abortion was perceived by most of them as unacceptable. In spite of their position to abortion, majority of the respondents were sexually active and still resorted to abortion whenever they were faced with un-intended pregnancies. Reproductive health education and counselling are therefore recommended.