Authors: Listowel Ferka, Joseph Kojo Oduro.
Background: Pregnancy termination is considered a major global public health challenge, especially in developing countries, where a large proportion of unsafe pregnancy terminations occur. In Ghana, pregnancy termination is a significant contributor to maternal morbidity and death among women of reproductive age. Maternal education and media exposure may affect pregnancy termination due to improved access to reproductive health information, including abortion. This study aimed to assess the association between educational attainment or media and pregnancy termination in Ghana.
Methods: This quantitative cross-sectional study utilised data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), which is part of the DHS program for monitoring health indicators in low- and middle-income countries. Using a cluster sampling technique, 5,882 women who had previously terminated a pregnancy and had complete data on all variables of interest were sampled. The data analysis, including descriptive and inferential statistics, was conducted in three phases using SPSS Version 27.
Results: The results revealed that women who had attained primary and secondary education (OR=1.38, 95% CI=1.14, 1.67; OR=1.16, 95% CI=0.94, 1.44), who listened to the radio message on reproductive health (OR=1.11, 95% CI=0.96, 1.29), who watched the TV programme on reproductive health (OR=1.05, 95% CI=0.88, 1.24), who read newspapers/ magazines (OR=1.08, 95% CI=0.77, 1.50), and who were exposed to the internet (OR=1.28, 95% CI=1.08, 1.51) were more likely to terminate pregnancy than were their colleagues who were not.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that educational levels of primary and secondary school, as well as exposure to reproductive health content through radio, television, the internet, and newspapers, are significantly linked to an increased likelihood of pregnancy termination among women. Policies aimed at regulating pregnancy termination should target educated women and women who have been exposed to radio, television, internet and newspaper messages on reproductive health education and women who are rich, married, cohabiting, residing in urban areas and aged 25-34 and 35-44 year.
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