Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Agbemavi, Wonder, Amu, Hubert, and Bonsu, Freda (2021) Reproductive health decision-making capacity and pregnancy termination among Ghanaian women: Analysis of the 2014 Ghana demographic and health survey. Journal of Public Health, 29 (1). pp. 85-94.

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Abstract

Aims: This study sought to assess the association between reproductive health decision-making (RDM) capacity and pregnancy termination among women in Ghana.

Methods: Using data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, the study sample inluded 5437 women of reproductive age. Data were extracted and analysed using STATA version 14.2. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were done to establish the association between the explanatory and outcome variable.

Results: The prevalence of pregnancy termination was 30.4%. Twenty-eight percent (27.7%) of those who had the capacity to make a reproductive health decision had ever terminated a pregnancy. In the multivariate analysis, women who were capable of taking reproductive health decisions, women aged 45–49 (AOR = 7.3, 95% CI = 3.772, 14.24) years, women from the Ashanti region (AOR = 1.414, 95% CI = 1.095, 1.827), women who were using traditional methods of contraception (AOR = 1.636, 95% CI = 1.168, 2.290) and women who watched TV at least once a week (AOR = 1.332, 95% CI = 1.111, 1.596) had higher odds of terminating a pregnancy. On the other hand, women who had a higher level of education (AOR = 0.682, 95% CI = 0.467, 0.946) and women with 4+ (AOR = 0.441, 95% CI = 0.323, 0.602) children had lower odds of terminating pregnancies.

Conclusion: RDM capacity, region, contraceptive use and intention, media exposure, level of education and parity are associated with pregnancy termination among Ghanaian women. To reduce pregnancy termination, regular integrated community-based outreach programmes targeted at generating community awareness of the effectiveness of modern contraception in prevention of unintended pregnancy are needed. Such efforts will go a long way toward reducing unintended pregnancy and subsequently bringing about reductions in induced abortion.

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