Induced abortion and effecting factors of ever married women in the Southeast Anatolian Project Region, Turkey: a cross sectional study

Ali Ihsan Bozkurt¹ , Birgul Özcirpici² , Servet Ozgur² , Saime Sahinoz² , Turgut Sahinoz³ , Gunay Saka⁴ , Ali Ceylan⁴ , Ersen Ilcin⁴ , Hamit Acemoglu⁴ , Yilmaz Palanci⁴ , Feridun Akkafa⁵ and Mucide Ak⁶

¹Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey

²Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey

³Medical Directorate of Gaziantep Province, Gaziantep, Turkey

⁴Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dicle University, Diyarbakır, Turkey

⁵Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey

⁶Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, İzmir, Turkey

author email corresponding author email

BMC Public Health 2004, 4:65doi:10.1186/1471-2458-4-65


Published:	22 December 2004

Abstract

Background

Nearly 10% of the population of Turkey lives in the Southeast Anatolian Project (SEAP) region. The population growth rate and the rate of unintended pregnancies are high and family planning services are insufficient in this region. Lifetime induced abortion rate is also high in this region.

Public health problems of the SEAP region were investigated in the "SEAP Public Health Project" in 2001 and 2002. As it is one of the most important health problems of the women living in this region; induced abortion was also investigated in this project.

Methods

An optimumsample size representing the rural and urban area of the region (n = 1150) was chosen by the State Institute of Statistics by a sampling method proportional to size. 1126 of the area's 1150 houses have been visited and data about induced abortions have been obtained by applying a questionnaire to 1491 ever married women who live in the region.

Results

It has been found that 9.0% of these women who had at least one pregnancy in their life had at least one induced abortion. The lifetime induced abortion per 100 pregnancies was found to be 2.45. The primary reason given for induced abortions was "wanting no more children" (64.6%). Lifetime induced abortions were 5.3 times greater with women using a family planning method than women not using family planning methods. Lifetime induced abortions were 4.1 times greater with unemployed women than working women. Most of the women have used private doctors in order to have an induced abortion.

Although 32.29% have not yet begun to use a contraceptive method after their last induced abortion, 43.75% of the women have since started to use an effective contraceptive method. 23.96% of them have begun to use an ineffective contraceptive method.

Conclusions

Induced abortion is still an important problem at the SEAP region. The results of the study remind us that unemployed women and women who have more than four children is our target group in the campaign against induced abortions. Most of the women use private doctors in order to have an induced abortion. Thus, priority must be given to educate private gynecologists with respect to induced abortion. After induced abortions, a qualified family planning consultant can be given to women and they can be secured to use a suitable contraceptive method.