FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE AMONG METTU UNIVERSITY FEMALE STUDENTS, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, WEST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Higher Education students' unwanted pregnancies pose a major public health problems in the developed and developing countries including Ethiopia and are associated with far reaching effects. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives and factors affecting it among of female students of Mettu University. Institution based cross-sectional study on assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptive was conducted from March to April 2013. Among the total participants (n = 318), only 25.8 % were sexually active. Ninety-three (29.3%) of them had ever heard of Emergency Contraceptive and only 21 (22.6%) used the method. The majority (78.5%) of the respondents had a positive attitude towards emergency contraceptives. Knowledge of emergency contraceptives was significantly associated with the faculty of respondents and sexual status of respondents (p<0.05). Similarly, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives were significantly associated with predictor variables, including age, faculty and sexual status of respondents (P< 0.05). The study showed low emergency contraceptive awareness and usage was found to be low. Therefore, it is highly recommended that interventions intended to combat maternal mortality through contraceptive usage need to be aware of such information specific to the target groups.