Assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practice of induced abortion among secondary and univeristy students in Fortportal municipality, Kabarole District
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Date
2017-11
Authors
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Publisher
Kampala International University. School of Health Sciences Western Campus
Abstract
Abortion is a contentious issue with religious, moral, cultural and political dimensions. The doctrines of religious denominations in Uganda frown at abortion making it hard for adolescents and young adults who have had it in the past to want to talk about it. Those who want to do it go to places where no one will recognize them, and want it done as quickly as possible to avoid
stigmatization and mockery. The complications of induced abortions have been documented in many studies around the world but knowledge and attitudes about induced abortions among young people have been addressed in very few previous studies. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of induced abortion among secondary and university students
in Fortportal municipality, Kabarole district. A cross section descriptive study design was adopted. A multistage sampling method was used to select 150 respondents from purposively selected five institutions (three secondary schools and two universities) with each contributing randomly selected 30 respondents. Data was collected with a self administered questionnaires and analyzed by SPSS version 20. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about induced abortion, attitudes towards induced abortion and the practice of induced abortions. Responses to
knowledge and attitude statements were scored and graded as good, moderate and poor for knowledge, then positive and negative for attitude. The response rate was 95.3%, the majority (87%) of the respondents had moderate (33%) to good (54%) knowledge. 81.8% of respondents had negative attitude and 18.2% had a positive attitude towards induced abortion. 6% of the respondents had done an induced abortion while 46% knew a friend/relative that had an induced abortion. Despite the good knowledge and negative attitude, induced abortion is still practiced and because of its illegal status in this country, it is done in hiding and often in dangerous places where complications are more likely to happen.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the department of public health, faculty of clinical medicine and dentistry in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery of Kampala International
University
Keywords
Induced abortion, Secondary and univeristy students, Kabarole District