Sexual violence as a predator of unintended pregnancy in uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was establishing the extent to which sexual violence influences unintended pregnancy among females in western Uganda. The objectives of the study were; to investigate the relationship between education levels, age, marital status and unintended pregnancy, and ii) to explore other factors leading to unintended pregnancy among females in western Uganda. The study employed quantitative research design to analyse secondary data on Uganda Demographic healthy survey (UDHS 2011) collected data from women aged 15 to 49 years. The findings revealed that only age (p<0.05) had significant positive relationship with unintended pregnancy but education level and marital status did not have a significant relationship with unintended pregnancy (p>0.05). Sexual violence had a positive significant relationship with unintended pregnancy among women aged 40-44 and 30-34 years and also more likely to lead to unintended pregnancy in women of wealth index middle category (p<0.05). The study concluded that sexual violence influences unintended pregnancy through age and wealth index. It was recommended that the government should try to put in place as many health facilities as possible to ensure that every woman has complete access to those health facilities. And also more research to be done on this topic in order to help in reduction on the risks of getting unintended pregnancy among females in Uganda.