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Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Sep;24(3):242-250.
doi: 10.4314/ahs.v24i3.28.

Attitudes of medical students towards abortion and their willingness to perform abortion: meta-analysis

Jian-Xin Hu  1 , Rui Chang  1 , Jian-Qing Du  1 , Min He  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Attitudes of medical students towards abortion and their willingness to perform abortion: meta-analysis

Jian-Xin Hu et al. Afr Health Sci. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Background and objectives: This study evaluates the opinion of medical students about abortion and their willingness to perform the abortion.

Methods: After a systematic review, meta-analyses of proportions were performed to achieve percent estimates of medical students' opinions about abortion and willingness to perform the abortion.

Results: 15 studies appraising 6341 medical students were included. Most medical students opined that abortion should be provided if the mother's life is threatened (89%), in case of rape (84%), if the mother's mental health is affected (79%), if the fetus is seriously defective (73%); and on mother's request (37%). Medical students informed that they would perform abortion if the mother's life is threatened (87%); in case of rape (77%); if the fetus is seriously defective (78%); if the mother's mental health is threatened (65%); in case of teenage pregnancy (51%); on mother's request (25%); and if court rules (19%). Religiosity was associated with significantly lower proabortion (favoring legalization of abortion) attitudes of medical students (OR: 0.10 [95% CI: 0.04, 0.24]; p<0.00001) but longer duration of medical education was associated with higher proabortion attitudes (OR: 1.75 [95% CI: 1.42, 2.14]; p<0.00001).

Conclusion: Attitudes of medical students towards abortion are generally ambivalent where the majority opine that abortion should be performed under certain circumstances.

Keywords: Abortion; attitudes; medical students; opinion.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A flowchart showing the process of study selection process after literature search
Figure 2
Figure 2
A forest graph showing the pooled estimates of the responses of medical students against the appraisal ‘under which circumstances abortion should be allowed’
Figure 3
Figure 3
A forest graph showing the pooled estimates of the responses of medical students against the appraisal ‘under which circumstances they will perform abortion’
Figure S1
Figure S1
A forest graph showing the effect of religion on medical students' responses
Figure S2
Figure S2
A forest graph showing the effect of duration of medical education on medical students' responses
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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