Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Emergency Contraceptives Among Adama University Female Students

Background Unwanted pregnancy followed by unsafe abortion is one of the major worldwide health problems, which has many negative consequences on the health and well-being of women. Information about women's knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives plays a major role in the reduction of unwanted pregnancy; however, there are no studies about this issue in the study area. This study assessed Adama University female students' knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives. Method A cross-sectional study design was employed from February 1 to 30/2009, on 660 regular undergraduate female students of Adama University. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Logistic regression was used to identify the association between variables and emergency contraceptive knowledge, attitude and practice. P-value less than 0.05 at 95% CI was taken for statistical significance. Results Of the total, 660 respondents, 194(29.4%) were sexually active, 63(9.4%) had history of pregnancy and 49(7.4%) had history of abortion. About 309 (46.8%) of the students had heard about emergency contraceptives and from those who heard emergency contraceptives, 27.2% had good knowledge. Majority, four hundred fifteen (62.9%) of the students had positive attitude towards it. However, only 31(4.7%) had used emergency contraceptive methods. Conclusion This study demonstrated lack of awareness, knowledge and utilization of emergency contraceptives among Adama University female students. Hence behavioral change strategies should be considered by responsible bodies to improve knowledge and bring attitudinal change on use of emergency contraception.


INTRODUCTION
Higher Education students' unwanted pregnancies pose a major public health problems in the developed and developing countries (1,2,3) including Ethiopia (4,5) and are associated with far reaching effects such as jeopardizing students' educational progress and future careers (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). These pregnancies are mostly unplanned and unintended, and many are terminated either legally or illegally. Around 30%-50% of wo men presenting for choice on termination of pregnancy were not using contraceptives at the time of contraception, and similar nu mbers of pregnancies were unplanned and unwanted (1,2).
Unwanted pregnancy is a big problem in Ethiopia; more than 60% of the pregnancies in adolescents are unwanted which is an alarming figure, and most of these pregnancies particularly in adolescents end up with unsafe abortion (4). According to the survey conducted in 2000 by ESOG in nine ad ministrative regions, 25.6% abortion cases were induced abortions. Among abortion cases, 60% were unplanned, and 50% were unwanted. Abortion related mortality was 1,209 per 100,000 live b irths (6,7).
In about half of all unwanted pregnancies, conception occurs due to inadequate guidance to use contraception effectively, including the users' inability to address their feelings, poor attitudes towards contraceptives, and lack of motivations (2). Despite the Ethiopian govern ment's effort to prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortion among youths of age less than 24 years, the number of youths requesting termination of pregnancy is increasing annually (4,8). Despite the availability of contraceptives with affordable costs, there is a large number youths' with unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion (4). Different studies showed that the knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraception among wo men are limited (4, 6-9).
As there are no studies in this problem in the area, this study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude and use of emergency contraceptives among female students of Adama University.

SUBJ ECTS AND METHODS
This study was conducted from February 1 to 30/2009 in Adama University, located 100 Kms Southeast of Addis Ababa. According to the informat ion obtained fro m the Registrar Office of Adama University, there were 45 departments at different schools during the conduct of the study. The total number of students in the University was 11788, females accounted for 27.2%.
Institution based cross-sectional study design was emp loyed among female students at Adama University. The sample size was calculated using single population proportion formu la.
Fro m those who had sexual experience, the proportion of students who practiced emergency contraceptive methods was assumed to be 73.4% (10). By adding non-response rate of 10%, and multip lying by a design effect of 2) a samp le of 660 was determined.
A two-stage sampling technique was used; where first 25 depart ments were selected from the total 45 departments using lottery method, Then, the total sample size was allocated to each department proportional to the number of female students in the department. Secondly, participant students were selected from each department proportional to their year of study using simple rando m sampling technique.  The number o f study participants from the selected departments was determined using probability proportionate-to-population size allocation methods depending on their educational year. The data were collected using a pre-tested structured self administered questionnaire which adapted to the local situations (1,2,8). The questionnaire were prepared in English and translated in to Amharic and back retranslated to English to check its consistency.
The question on behavioral variables were measured with five point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), and mean scores for each construct was computed and dichotomized in to positive and negative. Respondents who scored above the mean were labeled as having positive attitude and those who scored below the mean were labeled as having negative attitude. This scoring was subsequently reversed for negatively stated statement, so that the higher the score, the stronger the positive construct. Knowledge-questions were calculated after a number of question were presented. Correct answers were g iven score 1 and incorrect answering 0. The sum was computed and those who scored above the mean were labeled as having "good" knowledge and those who scored below the average were labeled to have "Poor knowledge'.
The respondents' attitude were measured using statements such as: (i) Emergency contraceptives use will not cause infertility in wo men (ii) Using emergency contraceptives after unsafe sexual intercourse is helpful, (iii) Emergency contraceptives creates lack of confidence between regular partners, (iv) it is good idea to avail emergency contraceptives for all females (v) it is sin to use emergency contraceptives methods (vi) The service of EC in campus or nearby clin ic is convenient.
Data collection facilitators were recruited fro m Adama University instructors, who had BSc and representatives of students were used as data collectors after training on the study objective and instruments. Data were cleaned, coded and analyzed using SPSS versions 16.0. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between different variables and knowledge, attitude and practice of part icipants about EC. P-value less than 0.05 at 95% CI was taken for statistical significance.
Ethical clearance and approval was obtained from ethical clearance committee of Faculty of Public Health, Jimma Un iversity after submission of the proposal, and a written consent was obtained from Adama University. All the study participants were informed about the purpose of the study, and their consent was obtained.

RES ULTS
A total of 660 students completed the questionnaire making a response rate of 100%. Age of study participants ranged from 18-31 years with mean of 20  5%). When asked about specific types of emergency contraceptives, among those who have ever heard of EC, only 135 (43.7%) and 16 (5.2%) identified correctly emergency contraception pills (ECPs) (Progestin only pill and combined oral contraceptive) and intra uterine devices (IUDs) respectively as emergency contraceptive methods. Among those who were aware of emergency contraception, only 59(19.1%) and 11(3.5%) correct ly identified 72 hours and 120 hours as the time limit for the ECPs and IUCD, respectively. When asked about the indication for EC, only 43(13.9%) mentioned the correct indication (after unprotected sex) while the rest gave different incorrect responses including after unwanted pregnancy by 76(24.2%), use as on going regular contraceptive by 101(33.9%) and do not know by 89 (28.4%). One hundred and sixty eight (54%) respondents stated that they could get EC fro m pharmacy, 132 (42.7%) fro m government hospitals and health centers and 59 (19%) of them said they could from private health institutions. When an overall knowledge score was co mputed, only 84 (27.2%) had good knowledge while 225(72.8%) had poor knowledge about the method. Although 415(62.9%) participants had positive attitude towards emergency contraceptives, the prevalence of ever use of emergency contraception among was only 4.7%. Emergency contraceptive pills were the commonest EC method used which accounted for 23(74.2%) (table 3). When controlled for possible confounding effects of other covariates that showed association with emergency contraceptives practice in bivariate analysis, study subjects who were married subjects were nine times more likely to use EC than singles (AOR=9.3; 95%CI: 2.54, 20.73). On the other hand, the likelihood of using EC was twice higher among students aged ≥20 years than those younger (15-19 years) (AOR=2.37; 95%CI: 1.102, 7.25) (table 4).

DISCUSS ION
In this study almost one-third of the subjects reported that they are already sexually active. This result is similar to the study conducted among college students in Assella (6). The result is also higher than similar study conducted on higher education students in Addis Ababa (8). But it was lower than the finding of studies conducted on South Africa Secondary School female students and Nigerian female undergraduates' students (1,9). In this study nearly one-third of ever sexually active respondents gave history of at least one pregnancy, of which 92% were unwanted pregnancies. But, the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy among the total study participants was 8.8 %, which is lower than reported by other studies conducted in the country, which ranged between 15-50% (4,8,11).
This study showed overall lo w rate of induced abortion. Of those with induced abortions, nearly twothird inflicted themselves and almost one-six by untrained abortionists. Similar Study conducted in Addis Ababa showed higher rate of unwanted pregnancy (73.5%), high rate of induced abortion (71.7%) and lo wer rate of safe abortion (29%) (8). The possible explanation for low rate of safe abortion and high rate of unwanted pregnancy in this study could be attributed to fear of parents and family, and economic problems made the respondents to take measures that could threaten their life or darken their future career.
Less than one-third of the respondents had good knowledge about EC on overall summary index for knowledge in this study which is comparab le with studies conducted in other parts of Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Cameron (8, 9,13). This finding reveals that comprehensive knowledge about EC methods is lacking among university female students.
The positive attitude of respondents towards EC is slightly higher than report fro m Addis Ababa (8) though a considerable proportion reported their concern on using it. Majority of the respondents got the service from pharmacy and only less than a quarter fro m govern ment institution which is similar to the study done in Uganda (2).
This study showed that use of EC is low which is similar to the findings of studies in different parts of Ethiopia (8,10) but less than the report from studies conducted in South Africa and Nigeria (1,9). The low EC p ractice rate in this study could be due to the fact that less proportion (29%) of them were sexually active compared to the report fro m South Africa and Nigeria where 57% and 63%, respectively were sexually active. The lo w awareness about EC could contribute. The fact that this study was institutionbased; our findings might not be generalized to the general population. Ho wever, it may represent female students of higher learning institutions of Ethiopia.
The ever use of contraceptive in this study was comparable to a study conducted among South Africa Secondary school students (11%) and Addis Ababa Higher Education students (10%) and Ethiopian DHS (17.4%) (1,8,12).
Though nearly half of the respondents have heard about EC in this study, only 15% of them had identified the correct timing of admin istration of the pills after unexpected sexual contact. Several studies conducted in higher institutes in Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Cameron, and other developing countries reported similar findings (2,9,13). The main sources of informat ion about EC were peers/friends, schools clubs and mass media which is similar with the finding in Uganda and Assella, Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2,6,8). In agreement with other studies findings, oral EC pill and IUCD were the most widely known and used emergency contraception (5,14).
In conclusion, in the presence of an increased risk of unwanted pregnancy and induced abortion among the sexually active students, the knowledge, and practice on emergency contraceptive was very low. Based on the findings, it is crucial to develop a strategy to increase awareness, knowledge, positive attitude, need based practice of emergency contraceptives and decrease barriers among respondents.