Publication:

Determinants of contraceptive methods use after voluntary induced abortion at the Yaounde Central Hospital, Cameroon

Background Abortion is the termination of pregnancy with expulsion of the product of conception before the age of fetal viability- 28 weeks. In Africa, 96% of abortions are unsafe and there is an estimated 1 death for 150 abortions. Few data are available in Cameroon on the determinants of contraception after a voluntary termination of pregnancy. The objective of this study to investigate the determinants of the use of contraceptive methods after a voluntary termination of pregnancy.

Methods The study was descriptive cross-sectional lasting 09 months in the gynecology and obstetrics unit of the Yaounde Central Hospital. We included women admitted to this unit who have already had at least one abortion. All women who did not give their consent were excluded. The data were entered and analyzed using the Epi-info software version 7.2.2.6. The tools used to express our results were the Student's and Whitney's test, the Wald test and the Odd ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence interval. The significance level was 5%.

Results Out of 139 participants, 86 (61.87%) had already used a modern contraceptive method after voluntary termination of pregnancy. The mean age was 27.13±6.16 years with extremes of 16 and 42 years. Being single and having unwanted pregnancies independently increased contraceptive method use after abortions.

Conclusions An intensification of campaigns for behaviour change and men's involvement would further improve the use of contraceptive methods after abortion.