Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec 24;21(1):197.
doi: 10.1186/s12978-024-01931-w.

Postabortion contraceptive use among women in Nepal: results from a longitudinal cohort study

Sunita Karki  1 , Mahesh C Puri  2 , Anupama Ale Magar  2 , Diana Greene Foster  3 , Sarah Raifman  3 , Dev Maharjan  2 , Nadia Diamond-Smith  4
Affiliations

Postabortion contraceptive use among women in Nepal: results from a longitudinal cohort study

Sunita Karki et al. Reprod Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Although the Government of Nepal has developed strategies to integrate contraceptive services with abortion care to better meet the contraceptive needs of women, data indicate that significant gaps in services remain. This paper assessed post-abortion contraceptive use, trends over 36 -months, and factors influencing usage.

Methods: Data from this paper came from an ongoing cohort study of 1831 women who sought an abortion from one of the sampled 22 government-approved health facilities across Nepal. Women were interviewed eight times over 36 months between April 2019 to Dec 2023. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the data.

Results: Results show that after abortion, 59% of women used modern contraception, with injection being the most prevalent method, followed by condoms, pills, implants, and IUD. The hazard model showed that discontinuation of modern contraception was significantly higher among women desiring additional children (aHR 0.62) and lower among literate (aHR - 0.15) and those with existing children (aHR - 0.30). Women's age, ethnicity, cohabitation with husband, household's income and autonomy were not associated with continuation.

Conclusion: After having an abortion, we found that just slightly more than half of women used modern methods of contraception; this percentage did not increase significantly over the course of three years.

Keywords: Contraception; Contraceptive use; Post-abortion contraception; Unintended pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study received approval from the Institutional Review Boards of the University of California, San Francisco (18-258863), and the Nepal Health Research Council, in Nepal (Reg No 704/2018). Consent for publication: All the authors of the manuscript consented for publication. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Ali MM, Cleland J, Shah IH. Causes and consequences of contraceptive discontinuation : evidence from 60 demographic and health surveys. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2012.
    1. Benson J, Andersen K, Brahmi D, Healy J, Mark A, Ajode A, et al. What contraception do women use after abortion? An analysis of 319,385 cases from eight countries. Glob Publ Health. 2018;13(1):35–50. 10.1080/17441692.2016.1174280. - PubMed
    1. Kc H, Shrestha M, Pokharel N, Niraula SR, Pyakurel P, Parajuli SB. Women’s empowerment for abortion and family planning decision making among marginalized women in Nepal: a mixed method study. Reprod Health. 2021;18(1):28. 10.1186/s12978-021-01087-x. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pant PD, Pandey JP, Bietsch K. Unmet need for family planning and fertility in Nepal: levels, trends, and determinants. DHS Furth Anal Rep. 2019. 10.1155/2014/649567.
    1. NDHS. Ministry of Health and Population. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, pp. 141—145. 2022.