Prevalence and Determinants of Unintended Pregnancy Among Women in South-Western Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy in urban and rural settlements in Southwestern Nigeria. DESIGN A prospective cross-sectional study of women within reproductive age. SETTING Community-based study of unwanted pregnancy was conducted in 2012. PARTICIPANTS They were women of reproductive age who had experienced unintended and/or unwanted pregnancies and they were randomly selected from rural and urban areas of Ogun state in Nigeria. INTERVENTION A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The prevalence of unintended/unwanted pregnancy, associated factors including the views, perception and attitudes of community members in both urban and rural settlements and the pattern of help-seeking behavior on the problem. RESULTS The age range of respondents was 15-48 years (mean age 31.2± 6.7 years). One thousand, two hundred and twenty-one (51.6%) of the respondents were married. The percentage of illiterate respondents was 3.5% in urban area and 4.1% in rural area. There was a statistically significant association between level of education and use of a method to avoid or delay pregnancy (p < 0.001). The prevalence of unintended pregnancy was 35.9% while that of induced abortion was 33.5%. Quality of service was the most important factor in the choice of a place for pregnancy termination in urban and rural areas. Economic reasons were often cited as reasons women make use of abortion services. CONCLUSION Unwanted pregnancy constitutes a problem, even at the community level. The high contraceptive awareness should be translated to an increased use so as to bridge the large gap of unmet need.