Determinants of Unsafe Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age (15-45yrs) in the Central Region, Ghana: A Facility Based Crossectional Study at Dunkwa Municipal Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess the determinants of unsafe abortion among women within their fertility age in the Central Region using Dunkwa Municipal Hospital as a case study. Methods: A facility based cross sectional study design was used for the study at Dunkwa Municipal Hospital. The population for the study was women in their reproductive age (15-49) accessing health care at Dunkwa Municipal Hospital from January to August, 2024. The study used 381 sample size, with simple random as a sampling technique. A structured questionnaire containing close and open ended questions was used to gather information from the study respondents. Data entry and analyses were done using SPSS version 22.0 software. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to assess the significance level of 0.05. Results: The following health facility factors proved statistically significant: Health workers perception, inexperience of health workers, high cost of safe abortion at the health facilities, health workers poor attitude, poor access to health facilities and lack of family planning on unsafe abortion (p-value=<0.001) respectively. The significant sociocultural factors were culture, early marriage, religion, money for family planning, parents, no parental sex education were all significant (p-value=<0.001) respectively. On sociodemographic characteristics and unsafe abortion the following variables were statistically significant (p-value=<0.001), age of the respondents had strong association with unsafe abortion. Educational status was also statistically associated with unsafe abortion (p-value =<0.001). Religion and income level were also statistically associated with unsafe abortion among the respondents (p-value =<0.001). Conclusion: It is concluded that if health workers improve upon their attitude, competence and reduce cost of health care, unsafe abortion among women would be reduced. Dealing with these sociocultural characteristics appropriately in the various communities can go a long way to reduce unsafe abortion. Any woman can experience unsafe abortion irrespective of her demographic features. Female counselling sessions need to be made available by the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to sensitize them on the dangers of unsafe abortion.