Predictors for Unintended Pregnancy in Kersa, Eastern Ethiopia, 2010

There is a knowledge gap regarding pregnancy intention in Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general among pregnant women. Identifying pregnancy intention helps programs to align the health service. The main aim of this research is to identify predictors of unintended pregnancy among currently married women. This work is part of pregnancy surveillance in Kersa Demographic Surveillance and Health Research Center, East Ethiopia. Data were collected by lay interviewers using uniform questionnaire. Odds Ratio and Relative Risk Ratio (RRR) with at 95% confidence interval were calculated to detect level of significance using multiple and multinomial logistic regression. Unintended pregnancy was reported by 27.9 % (578/2072) (of the pregnant women, out of which 440 were mistimed and 138 were not wanted. Unintended pregnancy tended to be associated with poor family wealth status, a high parity and a longer estimated time to walk to the nearest health care facility. Women from rich families reported their pregnancy to be intended with OR of 0.680 (P<0.01). Women with a parity of seven plus reported their current pregnancy was unintended with OR of 5.182 (p<0.001). Estimated time to walk to the nearest health facility 80 plus minutes showed strong association to unintended pregnancy with OR of 2.245 (p<0.001). Parity seven plus showed strong association to mistimed and unwanted pregnancies with RRR of 3.111 and 14.342 (p<0.001 for both), respectively. High parity and longer walking distance to nearest health care facility are strong predictors of unintended pregnancy. Hence the researchers would like to recommend efforts to reach rural women with family planning services need strengthening in order to reduce the high rate of unintended pregnancy.