Contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy among young women and men in Accra, Ghana

Kate Grindlay, Phyllis Dako-Gyeke, Thoai D Ngo, Gillian Eva, Leonard Gobah, Sarah T Reiger, Sruthi Chandrasekaran and Kelly Blanchard

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with modern contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy among young women and men in Accra, Ghana. From September-December 2013, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with 250 women and 100 men aged 18–24. We explored determinants of modern contraceptive use among males and females and unintended pregnancy among females. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and multivariable logistic regression were used. Participants had an average of three lifetime sexual partners, and 91% had one current partner. Overall, 44% reported current modern contraceptive use. In multivariate modeling, modern contraceptive use was associated with higher education compared to primary (AORs 2.1–4.3); ever talking with someone about contraception (AOR 4.7); feeling unsupported by a healthcare provider for contraception (AOR 2.2); and not feeling at risk of unintended pregnancy (AOR 2.7). While ≥70% of participants recognized most contraceptive methods, awareness of some methods was lacking. Nearly all respondents (91%) felt at least one modern method was unsafe. Nearly half of all females (45%) reported their last pregnancy was unintended, and 63% of females and 58% of males felt at risk for future unintended pregnancy. Women were more likely to experience unintended pregnancy if they had ever given birth (AOR 6.7), their sexual debut was 8–14 years versus 20–24 years (AOR 3.4), or they had 3–4 lifetime sexual partners versus 1–2 (AOR 2.4). Targeted interventions are needed to improve understanding of the safety of modern contraceptive methods, increase awareness of long-acting methods, and consequently increase modern contraceptive access and use.

Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0201663 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 01663&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0201663

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201663

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone (plosone@plos.org).