Abstract

MORALES DIAZ, Eduardo; SOLANELLES ROJAS, Ana María; MORA GONZALEZ, Salvador Roberto  and  MIRANDA GOMEZ, Osvaldo. Unwanted pregnancy in university students. Rev Cub Med Mil [online]. 2013, vol.42, n.2, pp.153-163. ISSN 0138-6557.

Introduction: unwanted pregnancy is a world problem which is not related to any social class or race. Objective: to determine the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and the associated risk factors. Methods: we performed a cross-sectional descriptive observation study. The universe was composed of female students from a university school in Havana City, independently of the years they were studying. We evaluated the level of knowledge of sexual and reproductive health. We identified the main forms of getting information in relation to sexual and reproductive health as well as the biological, psychological, social and educational consequences of unwanted pregnancies. Results: the 18.7 % of those polled had, at least, an unwanted pregnancy. The main causes were: inadequate culture of sexual education (57.7 %) and lack of control over sexual behaviours (28.2 %). A low knowledge of sexual health (39.7 %) and a reason for the prevalence of 2.5 predominated in the study. The social and psychological problems were the most outstanding consequences representing a 60.3 and a 44.9 % respectively. Conclusions: unwanted pregnancy had a high prevalence because of an inadequate sexual education with a significantly low knowledge of the topic, which led to both social and psychological consequences.

Keywords : unwanted pregnancy; risk factors; sexual education; level of knowledge.

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