Factors associated with induced abortion in Nepal: data from a nationally representative population-based cross-sectional survey

Striving toward safe abortion services in Nepal: A review of barriers and facilitators

Background and Aims

Despite the decriminalization of abortion in Nepal in 2002, unsafe abortion is still a significant contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality. Nepal has witnessed a significant drop in abortion-related severe complications and maternal deaths owing to the legalization of abortion laws, lowered financial costs, and wider accessibility of safe abortion services (SAS). However, various factors such as sociocultural beliefs, financial constraints, geographical difficulties, and stigma act as barriers to the liberal accessibility of SAS. This review aimed to determine key barriers obstructing women's access to lawful, safe abortion care and identify facilitators that have improved access to and quality of abortion services.

Methods

A systematic search strategy utilizing the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Embase was used to include studies on the accessibility and safety of abortion services in Nepal. Data were extracted from included studies through close reading. Barriers and facilitators were then categorized into various themes and analyzed.

Results

Of 223 studies, 112 were duplicates, 73 did not meet the inclusion criteria, and 18 did not align with the research question; thus, 20 studies were included in the review. Various barriers to SAS in Nepal were categorized as economic, geographic, societal, legal/policy, socio-cultural, health systems, and other factors. Facilitators improving access were categorized as economic/geographic/societal, legal/policy, socio-cultural, and health systems factors. The patterns and trends of barriers and facilitators were analyzed, grouping them under legal/policy, socio-cultural, geographic/accessibility, and health systems factors.

Conclusion

The review identifies financial constraints, unfavorable geography, lack of infrastructure, and social stigmatization as major barriers to SAS. Economics and geography, legalization, improved access, reduced cost and active involvement of auxiliary nurse-midwives and community health volunteers are key facilitators.

Determinants of induced abortion among women received maternal health care services in public hospitals of Arba Minch and Wolayita Sodo town, southern Ethiopia: unmatched case-control study

Background

About 210 million women become pregnant per year, with one out of every ten pregnancies terminating unsafely worldwide. In developing countries, unsafe induced abortion is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. In addition, the burden of public health is also greatest in developing regions. In Ethiopia, abortion was responsible for 8.6% of maternal deaths. Despite the problem's significance, little is known about the factors that lead to women terminating their pregnancies. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors associated with having induced abortion in public hospitals of Arba Minch and Wolayita Sodo town, Southern Ethiopia.

Methods

An institutional-based unmatched case–control study was conducted among 413 women from 15th April to 15th June 2021 in selected public hospitals of Arba Minch and Wolayita Sodo town, Southern Ethiopia. Cases were women who received induced abortion care services or who received post-abortion care services after being presented to the selected public hospital with an attempt of induced abortion whereas controls were women who came for maternal health care (antenatal or postnatal care) services in selected public hospitals and never had history of induced abortion. The data were collected by pretested and structured questionnaires with face-to-face interviews via Kobo Collect v3.1 mobile tools and analyzed by STATA version14. Logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with induced abortion. In this study P-value less than 0.05 with 95% CI was declared a result as statistically significant.

Results

In this study, 103 cases and 309 controls were participated. Urban residence (AOR = 2.33, 95%CI:1.26, 4.32), encountered first sex at age of 20–24 years (AOR = 0.51, 95%CI:0.27,0.97), multiple sexual partner (AOR = 5.47, 95%CI: 2.98,10.03), women who had one child (AOR = 0.32, 95%CI: 0.10, 0.99), and good knowledge of contraceptives (AOR = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.03, 0.46) were identified as determinants of induced abortion.

Conclusions

Interventions focusing on those identified factors could probably reduce the burden and consequences of induced abortion. Sexual and reproductive health education and family planning programs would target urban dwellers, women who start sexual intercourse between the ages of 15 and 19, women with more than one sexual partner, women with a desire to limit childbearing, and women with poor contraceptive knowledge in order to reduce induced abortion.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-022-01695-0.

Abortion knowledge, attitudes and experiences among adolescent girls: a review of the literature

Adolescent girls comprise a considerable proportion of annual abortion deaths, worldwide, with 15% of all unsafe abortions taking place among girls under 20 years of age. Despite recent global attention to the health and welfare of adolescent girls, little is known about their abortion experience, particularly of those under the age of 15 years. This review examines existing peer-reviewed and grey literature on abortion-related experiences of adolescent girls, paying particular attention to girls ages 10-14. In December 2019, the authors conducted a comprehensive search of five major online resource databases, using a two-part keyword search strategy for articles from 2003 to 2019. Of the original 3,100+ articles, 1,228 were individually screened and 35 retained for inclusion in the analysis. Findings show that while adolescent girls may have knowledge of abortion in general, they lack specific knowledge of sources of care and delay care-seeking due to the fear of stigma, lack of resources and provider bias. Adolescent girls do not experience higher rates of physical complications compared to older cohorts, but they are at risk of psychosocial harm. For girls ages 10-14, abortion experience may be compounded by pregnancy due to sexual abuse or transactional sex, and they face even more barriers to care than older adolescents in terms of provider bias and lack of agency. Adolescents have unique needs and experiences around abortion, which should be accounted for in programming and advocacy. Adolescent girls need information about safe abortion at an early age and a responsive and stigma-free health system.

Retraction Note: Factors associated with induced abortion in Nepal: data from a nationally representative population-based cross-sectional survey

The authors have retracted this article [1] because it contains significant conceptual and textual overlap with unpublished work from another group. Suresh Mehata, Jamie Menzel, Erin Pearson and Kathryn Andersen agree with this retraction. Navaraj Bhattarai, Sharad Kumar Sharma and Mukta Shah did not respond to correspondence regarding this retraction.

Spatial distribution and determinants of abortion among reproductive age women in Ethiopia, evidence from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016 data: Spatial and mixed-effect analysis

BACKGROUND

Unsafe abortion remains a global public health concern and it is the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. Despite the efforts made to improve maternal health care service utilization, unsafe abortion yet constitutes the highest maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Ethiopia. Although abortion among reproductive-age women is a common problem in Ethiopia, there is limited evidence about the spatial distribution and determinants of abortion. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the spatial distribution and determinants of abortion among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia.

METHODS

A secondary data analysis was conducted using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) data. A total of 12378 reproductive-age women were included in this study. The Bernoulli model was fitted using SaTScan version 9.6 statistical software to identify significant hotspot areas of abortion and ArcGIS version 10.6 statistical software was used to explore the spatial distributions of abortion. For the determinant factors, a mixed effect logistic regression model was fitted to take into account the hierarchical nature of the EDHS data. Deviance (-2LL), AIC, BIC, and ICC were used for model comparison. The AOR with a 95% CI was estimated for the potential determinants of abortion.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of abortion in Ethiopia was 8.9% ranging from 4.5% in Benishangul to 11.3% in Tigray regions. The spatial analysis revealed that abortion was significantly varied across the country. The SaTScan analysis identified a total of 60 significant clusters, of these 19 clusters were primary clusters. The primary clusters were located in the northern part of the Tigray region (LLR = 26.6, p<0.01; RR = 2.63). In the multivariable mixed-effect logistic regression analysis; primary education [AOR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.64], rural residence [AOR = 4.96; 95% CI: 3.42, 7.18], protestant religion follower [AOR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.75], richest wealth status [AOR = 1.72; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.40], maternal age 45-49 years [AOR = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.52, 6.44], listening radio [AOR = 1.27; 1.01, 1.60], and watching television [AOR = 1.45; 1.04, 2.01] were significant determinants of abortion.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of abortion remains unacceptably high in Ethiopia. The spatial distribution of abortion has been significantly varied across regions in Ethiopia. Having primary education, being rural, having media exposure, and being from the richest household were significantly associated with higher odds of abortion whereas being protestant religious followers were associated with lower odds of abortion. Therefore, the government should design public health programs targeting the identified hotspot areas of abortion and should scale up maternal health programs in rural areas, to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.