Attitudes Towards Utilization of Emergency Contraceptives among Female Undergraduate Students, University of Kabianga, Kenya

Background: Emergency contraceptive (EC) provide an important chance to prevent unplanned pregnancy after a regular method fails, no method was used, or when sex was forced.

The world health organization recommends the use of contraceptive pills, like progesterone preparations (levonorgestrel) and post-coital intra- uterine device (IUCD) insertion as EC. Unintended pregnancies amongst students at higher education institutions impact students’ academic success.

Objective: This study sought to determine the attitude and practice on emergency contraceptives among female undergraduate students at university of Kabianga, Kenya.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used. Stratified random sampling was applied to determine the selected sample. The students were stratified according to the year of study, each year of study formed strata. A sample proportionate to the study year and campus was picked. Data was obtained by self-administered questionnaires. Bivariate analysis was applied to establish the test of association between demographic factors and attitude on emergency contraceptives use of chi-square test at 5% significance level. In multivariate analysis the independent variable of attitude on emergency contraceptive were obtained using logistic regressions.

Results: The results for the logistic regression analysis indicated that a unit increase in age would lead to a unit decrease in attitude. The p-values revealed that age (p=0.741, or=0.930), year of study (p=0.908, or=1.024), religion (p=0.383, or=0.753), marital status (p=0.746, or=0.943) and place of residence (p=0.928, or=0.970) were not significantly associated with attitude. This implies that age, year of study, religion, marital status and place of residence do not influence attitude on emergency contraceptive utilization.

Conclusion: Majority of the respondents had a favorable attitude (71.4%) towards emergency contraceptives.

A number of them (58.4%) pointed out that they would use EC in case of an emergency. Of those who had ever heard of emergency contraception, 63.6% reported favorable attitudes toward emergency contraception.