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Estimating abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy among adolescents in Zimbabwe, 2016: A cross-sectional study

BMJ Open May 02, 2020

Riley T, Madziyire MG, Chipato T, et al. - Researchers sought to provide the first estimates of age-specific abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy in Zimbabwe. In addition, they investigated differences among adolescents by marital status and residence. Age-specific abortion incidence was estimated using a variant of the Abortion Incidence Complications Methodology, an indirect estimation approach. Three surveys were employed for this work: the Health Facility Survey, a census of 227 facilities that provide postabortion care (PAC); the Health Professional Survey, a purposive sample of key informants knowledgeable about abortion (n = 118) and the Prospective Morbidity Survey of PAC patients (n = 1,002). Analysis revealed the lowest abortion rate among adolescent women aged 15–19 years at five abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years vs other age groups. A higher abortion ratio was reported among adolescents living in urban areas vs those in rural areas, and among unmarried adolescent women vs married adolescents. Across age groups, similar unintended pregnancy levels were observed; the lowest proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in induced abortion (9%) was observed among adolescent women vs other age groups. Findings thereby suggest that adolescent women have abortions at lower rates and carry a higher proportion of unintended pregnancies to term than older women. Further, adolescent women as well are not a homogeneous group, and youth-focused reproductive health programmes should account the disparities in experiences and barriers to care among young people that influence their ability to decide whether and when to parent.

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