Health care providers’ knowledge and associated factors towards the components of post abortion care service in hospitals of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

TL;DR

This study in Ethiopia found that only 25.9% of healthcare providers had adequate knowledge about post-abortion care components, with training and guideline use strongly linked to better knowledge.

Contribution

The study identifies specific factors associated with healthcare providers' knowledge gaps in post-abortion care in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.

Findings

Only 25.9% of healthcare providers had adequate knowledge of post-abortion care components.

Providers who used guidelines or received training were significantly more knowledgeable.

Referral hospital staff and those managing more cases had better knowledge.

Abstract

In Ethiopia, a significant proportion of women face barriers to accessing family planning services, with nearly 48% not receiving family planning counseling and approximately 35.2% receiving no counseling at all. This gap in provider knowledge contributes to a high rate of repeat abortions, which stands at 33.6%, underscoring the urgent need for effective post-abortion care. The main factor behind this issue is the knowledge gap among healthcare providers, which affects their ability to offer comprehensive family planning service. Addressing this gap is essential for improving reproductive health outcomes and reducing the incidence of abortion complication in the country. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess knowledge of healthcare providers regarding post-abortion care components and the associated factors influencing this knowledge in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, in 2019. Hospital-based cross-sectional study employed using face-to-face interviews from May to August 2019. A total of 224 healthcare providers, including midwives, nurses, doctors, emergency surgeons, and health officers, were selected from seven randomly chosen general and referral hospitals in Tigray. Data were entered, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Both binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between various independent variables and providers’ knowledge of components of post-abortion care. The study found that only 25.9% of healthcare providers had adequate knowledge about the components of post-abortion care. Regarding the components of post abortion care, family planning and community- care provider partnerships were recognized by the 91.1% and 36.2% of participants respectively as a components of post abortion care. Providers who used post-abortion care guidelines were three times more likely to be knowledgeable (AOR = 3.424 [1.09–10.72]) compared to those who did not. Similarly, those who received training were four times more knowledgeable (AOR = 4.102 [1.71–9.79]). Providers who managed five or more cases per day were also four times more knowledgeable (AOR = 4.348 [1.57–11.97]) compared to those managed less than five cases, and those working in referral hospitals demonstrated four times better knowledge compared to their counterparts in general hospitals (AOR = 4.332 [1.82–10.27]). The study highlights a significant gap in healthcare providers’ knowledge on components of post-abortion care. To address this, regular in-service training and adherence to national post-abortion care guidelines are strongly recommended.

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