Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Emergency Contraceptives and Associated Factors among Wollo University (Dessie Campus) Undergraduate Female Students in Dessie, Ethiopia

Introduction: Each year there are about 250 Million pregnancies globally and despite the presence of Emergency contraceptives one third of these are unintended and 20% of these undergo induced abortion. In Low income countries like Ethiopia, more than one third of the 182 million pregnancies are unintended; the fate of 19% will be induced abortion and 11% of this is unsafe. In Ethiopia, abortion emanating from unintended pregnancy is one of the most significant causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of Wollo University (Dessie campus) female students towards emergency contraceptives and its associated factors from November 2012 to May 2013. Methods: A quantitative descriptive cross -sectional study was conducted on 342 female students of Wollo University (Dessie campus) from November 2012 to May 2013. Colleges in the University were categorized in to strata and from each college participants were selected by systematic random sampling. Result: In this study from the total 342 respondents, 72.5% have heard about Emergency contraceptives, 36.5% were knowledgeable, 40.6% had positive attitude and only 21.3% ever used Emergency contraceptives. Results of logistic regression also showed that awareness and use of Emergency contraceptives were associated with religion, age, educational status of their parents, and year of study and place of origin. Conclusion: In general the knowledge of respondents on Emergency contraceptives and its use was very low when compared to their awareness on regular methods of contraception. Factors associated with the knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives were religion, age, educational status of their parents, year of study and place of origin.