Risk factors of pregnancy termination among young women in Uganda

Abstract

The objective of the study was to examine the household and individual factors associated with pregnancy termination by young women in Uganda. The investigation was based on the Uganda Demographic Health Survey data for 2016 that covered 18506 women specifically on 13672 women who were less than the age of 35 years (considered as young women). The variable of interest (dependent variable) was a binary outcome seeking to know whether one has ever had a terminated pregnancy. Analysis was done using frequency distributions, associations and the multilevel complementary log-log regression clustered by households. In the results, about 16 percent of the respondents revealed to have ever terminated a pregnancy. At multivariate analysis, the variables that turned out to be significantly influencing pregnancy termination were; age of the woman, age at first sex by the woman, marital status of the woman, number of living children of the woman and health facility access. The p-value was significant (P<0.05) for each of the above-mentioned variables. Particularly, being aged 20-24 years, 25-29 years and 30-34 years increased the odds of pregnancy termination by a woman compared to being aged 15-19 years holding other factors constant (OR=1.888, 2.614 and 3.600 respectively). With regard to age at sexual debut, women who had their sexual debut while in the age brackets 15-19 years, 20-24 years and 25-30 years had reduced odds of pregnancy termination (OR=0.888, 0.724 and 0.355 respectively) sexual debut when aged 8-14 years holding other factors constant. Considering marital status of the woman, though those who are married had increased odds of pregnancy termination, single/ Never married women had reduced odds of pregnancy termination (OR= 1.001, 0.321 respectively) compared to those who were formerly married holding other factors constant although the chances of pregnancy termination among the married and formerly married women are more or less the same. The findings suggest the need by Government of Uganda through the relevant government agencies for: increased sensitization among young girls on the benefits of delayed sex and consequences of early sexual debut; continued encouragement of family planning in families and more extension of its services to the population.