Abstract

Background: Globally unwanted pregnancy is among the major social and public health problem. Of an estimated 210 million pregnancies that occur in the world each year, 38% are unwanted, out of which 22% end up with abortion. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and associated factors among college female students in Debre Tabor, northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from June to October 2017. A multi-stage stratified sampling technique was applied to select a total of 862 study participants from five governmental and private colleges. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were also carried out to identify the association between dependent and independent variables. The odds ratio with the 95% confidence interval was computed to determine the level of significance.

Results: A total of 821 college students participated in the questions on unwanted pregnancy yielding a response rate of 95.2%. Of the respondents who ever had a history of pregnancy, 75.3% of them encountered unwanted pregnancy. Field of study [AOR: 4.1; 95% CI: 1.06, 16.08], ever heard about emergency contraceptive [AOR: 12.3; 95% CI: 2.23, 68.03] and performing discussion on reproductive health issues [AOR: 3.6; 95% CI: 1.08, 12.06] were found to be significant contributing factors for unwanted pregnancy.

Conclusions: The finding of this study indicates that; unwanted pregnancy among college students in Debre Tabor is high. Student’s field of study ever heard about emergency contraceptives and conducting a discussion on reproductive health issues were independently associated with unwanted pregnancy. Therefore, providing modern contraceptives methods targeting female students who are at increased risk of unwanted pregnancy is important to prevent unwanted pregnancy and its complications.

Keywords: Unwanted pregnancy; College student; Debre Tabor; Ethiopia