Perceptions about abortion among college going late adolescent girls of Ranchi Women’s College, Ranchi, Jharkhand - A pilot study

ABSTRACT

Background: Increase in teenage pregnancy and illegal abortion have become a major concern in India and understanding adolescent sexual behavior still remains a challenge. Nearly 60% of abortion in India is illegal. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the level of knowledge about abortion among late adolescent girls (16–19 years). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Bachelor of Arts 1st year students of Ranchi Women’s College, Ranchi. It included girls in the age group of 16–19 years. The duration of the study was 3 months (August–October 2018). A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The descriptive statistics analysis includes percentage and mean with standard deviation. To assess the knowledge level scoring was done. Analysis of variance was done to test the difference in knowledge score. Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional ethics committee and permission was then taken from the principal of Ranchi Women’s College. Results: A total of 71 students gave assent/consent. The mean age of study subjects was 18.25 (0.68) years. Every student had heard about abortion, but still 19 of them thought abortion to be illegal in India. Of 22 students who claimed to know the gestational age up to which abortion can be done, only 5.6% had correct knowledge. Regarding the place where abortion must be done, 40.8% answered correctly. Most of the respondents (39.4%) mentioned rape to be the condition for legal abortion followed by risk of child abnormality. The common complication is known as bleeding and infection. Friends were the most common source of information. Only 2.8% of girls had satisfactory knowledge, the average and low knowledge being present in 33.8% and 63.4% of girls, respectively. Conclusion: This study seeks to determine the existing knowledge of teenagers which was found to be very low. This calls researchers to explore the existing knowledge gap and ways to reduce it at early stage so that maximum could be benefitted from MTP act.