Knowledge and attitudes on unsafe abortions among the state university undergraduates in Western Province

Abstract

Background: Abortion is legally permitted in Sri Lanka only to save mother's life. A great majority of undergraduates reside away from home and are vulnerable to risky behaviour. However, their knowledge and attitudes on abortion are scarce in Sri Lanka. Objective: To describe the knowledge and attitudes on unsafe abortions among undergraduates in the state universities of Western Province, Sri Lanka Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1575 second and third year undergraduates using stratified cluster sampling of the selected universities. Pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was administered to assess socio-demographic factors, knowledge and attitudes on unsafe abortion. Responses to the knowledge and attitude questions were scored and graded. Percentage of knowledge categories and attitudes were calculated. The associations of knowledge categories with selected variables were assessed and reported as odds ratio (OR). Results: Of the respondents, the majority (n=839, 53.3%) had good knowledge on unsafe abortion while 30.5% (n=480) had satisfactory knowledge and the minority (16.3%) had poor knowledge. Females (n=509, 55%) had more good knowledge than males (n=329, 51%; p>0.05). Also, those who studied in Bio-Science stream (n=174, 70.2%; p<0.001) and had their secondary education at mixed schools (n=351, 54.4%; p>0.05) had more good knowledge than the other categories. The majority (n=1074, 68.5%) agreed that legal restrictions would drive people to unsafe abortion while making abortion services through the government health facilities could increase inappropriate sexual behaviour (n=998, 63.7%). Only a very few (n=111, 7.1%) of the undergraduates agreed that abortion was a convenient form of contraception while 47.7% (n=747) agreed abortion to be restricted to save mother's life. The majority (n=833, 53.2%) agreed that it should be a right of a pregnant woman to decide whether she wants an abortion or not. Conclusion: A majority of undergraduates had good knowledge on unsafe abortion. Most of the undergraduates did not prefer to fully liberalize abortion policies due to inappropriate usage, yet acknowledged it is a right of a pregnant mother.

The knowledge and prevalence of induced abortion among female undergraduates at a tertiary institution in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria

“…This result is similar to other studies done in Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Sri Lanka and Ethiopia which documented that majority of women who procure abortion were usually young and unmarried, also, these studies were done among secondary and university students. 10,14,15 This corroborates the fact that the adolescent and early adults are the major age group at risk of induced abortion. The world health organization has also revealed that the age group 15-24 years in African region accounted for more than 50% of the global abortion-related mortalities.…”

Sexual Risk Behaviour and associated factors: a cross-sectional study among undergraduates in a lower resource setting

“…Different factors have been identified as being associated with SRBs among undergraduates from research conducted during the past decades. Socio-economic and demographic factors, personality, self-esteem, health and knowledge and presence of other health risk behaviors such as risky substance use, family and parental factors, adverse childhood events, and school and peer-related factors were significantly associated with SRBs (Bori and Jelena 2015;Caspi et.al., 1997;Espelage, Basile, & Hamburger, 2012;Khalaj, Abadi, John, and Amir, 2011;Kebede, et.al., 2005;Perera, and Abeysena, 2018a;Perera, and Abeysena, 2018b;Ramiro, Madrid & Brown, 2010;Ssewanyan, 2018;Yi, Te, Pengpid, & Peltzer, 2018). Furthermore, Institutional/university-related factors included academic performance, living in hostels, going to parties, presence of a roommate and peer delinquency behavior and societal factors like discrimination faced by undergraduates have been assessed for association with SRBs among undergraduates (Chanakira, O'Cathain, Goyder, & Freeman;2014;Gardner, & Steinberg, 2005;Piña-Watson, Cox, & Neduvelil, 2021).…”