Documenting the Individual- and Household-Level Cost of Unsafe Abortion in Uganda

International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 180 complications (0.4–0.5). •Loss of productivity. Only two characteristics were associated with the respondent or other household members having experienced reduced productivity (inability to work, to earn or both) because of the respondent’s abortion-related morbidity. The odds of productivity loss among women who had spent one or more nights in a health facility (and hence probably had relatively severe complications) were more than twice those of women who had been treated as outpatients (odds ratios, 2.2–2.4). In addition, loss of productivity was more common in households of married women than in those of unmarried women (1.6). •Deterioration in economic circumstances.† Among women who were re-interviewed 2–3 months after receiving postabortion care, two characteristics were associated with deterioration in their economic circumstances—that is, with whether they and their family had lost economic assets, incurred debt, lowered their consumption, or had to work more or give up their jobs in response to their illness (Table 4). Women who had spent one night at the health facility had higher odds of experiencing economic deterioration than did women who had not had an overnight stay (odds ratio, 2.8) and women who had incurred higher postabortion care expenses (i.e., those in the highest three quintiles) were more likely than those with lower expenses to have seen their economic circumstances worsen (1.6).