Prevalence and correlates of induced abortion: results of a facility-based cross-sectional survey of parturient women living with HIV in South Africa

Ajayi, Anthony Idowu, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, and Adeniyi, Oladele Vincent (2022) Prevalence and correlates of induced abortion: results of a facility-based cross-sectional survey of parturient women living with HIV in South Africa. Reproductive Health, 19. 220.

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Abstract

Background: There is a paucity of studies examining the prevalence and correlates of induced abortion among women living with HIV. Our study fills this gap by examining the prevalence and correlates of induced abortion among parturient women living with HIV in Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Methods: We analysed cross-sectional survey data of the East London Prospective Cohort Study, which took place between September 2015 and May 2016 in three large maternity facilities in the Buffalo/Amathole districts of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A total of 1709 parturient women living with HIV who gave birth over the study period were recruited. We carried out descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The prevalence of induced abortion was 19% (95% CI: 17.2–20.9%), but varied by women’s socio-demographic characteristics. Induced abortion prevalence was higher among women aged 25 years and over (21.4%), than among women aged less than 25 years (11.0%). Those ever married or cohabiting (26.8%) reported a higher level of induced abortion than those never-married women (15.6%). Those already diagnosed HIV positive before their index pregnancy (20.2%) had a higher prevalence of induced abortion than those diagnosed during their index pregnancy (14.1%). In the adjusted logistic regression, women were more likely to have ever induced abortion if they were ever married or cohabiting (aOR; 1.86 95% CI; 1.43–2.41), ever smoked (aOR: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.01–2.28) and diagnosed with HIV before their index pregnancy (aOR:1.44; 95% CI: 1.02–2.05) but less likely if younger than 25 years (aOR; 0.51 95% CI:0.35–0.73).

Conclusion: About one in five women living with HIV had ever induced abortion in the study settings, indicating that abortion service is one of the main reproductive health services needed by women living with HIV in South Africa. This is an indication that the need for abortion is somewhat high in this group of women. The finding, therefore, highlights the need for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to address the unmet need for contraception among women living with HIV to prevent unintended pregnancy.

Item ID: 77567
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1742-4755
Keywords: Contraception, Induced abortion, Pregnancy termination, South Africa, Unintended pregnancy, Unwanted pregnancy, Women living with HIV
Copyright Information: © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2023 04:29
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420606 Social determinants of health @ 100%
SEO Codes: 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200401 Behaviour and health @ 100%
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