Knowledge and Attitude towards Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) among Female Students in the University for Development Studies, Ghana

Background: Pregnancy is an important process in the life cycle that gives rise to offspring to ensure continuity of life. However, due to unwanted pregnancies, some women resort to an abortion, which may or may not be safe. Given the health risk associated with unsafe abortion, the World Health Organization firmly supports Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) as a best practice since it offers access to both safe abortion and post-abortion care. It is important to note that, a significant proportion of unsafe abortions occur among students in developing countries.

Aim: To assess the knowledge and attitude towards Comprehensive Abortion Care (CAC) among female students at the University for Development Studies, Ghana.

Methods: The study is quantitative with a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 384 female students from various departments for inclusion. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 25. Based on some selected demographic factors of respondents, a one-way analysis of variance (One way ANOVA) was done to assess whether there were any differences in the respondents' knowledge and attitudes about comprehensive abortion care.

Results: The results showed that more than half of the respondents, 59.6% (n = 229) had poor knowledge of comprehensive abortion care. Only 31.5% (n = 121) of students knew that an abortion can be done if the pregnancy is as a result of rape and 36.7% (n = 141) of students knew incest as a legal criterion for abortion in the current study. A one-way ANOVA test revealed a statistically significant difference in knowledge on students’ levels of study [F (3, 380) = 53.429, p =.000] and age [F (3, 380) = 3.615, p =.013]. A follow-up post hoc analysis (α= .05) showed that students in their fourth year of study had higher knowledge than those in their third year [MD = 5.614, p = .000], second year [MD = 7.348, p = .000] and first year [MD = 6.893, p = .000]. In terms of age, students between 26 – 30 years had a significantly higher knowledge than all the other age groups. Finally, the mean score of 13.94 (SD = 3.072) revealed a negative attitude towards CAC; where 52.6% (n = 202) had a negative attitude whilst 47.4% (n = 182) had a positive attitude towards comprehensive abortion care.

Conclusion: Overall, this finding from the study indicates the respondents have had limited knowledge and a negative attitude towards comprehensive abortion care. Therefore, educational campaigns focused on increasing knowledge of comprehensive abortion care and destigmatizing abortion should be targeted at female students in tertiary institutions.