Publications

Unplanned pregnancies among university students are an important public health issue in both developed anddeveloping countries because of its negative association with social, psychological and health outcomes for bothmothers and the children. The rate of unplanned pregnancies among university female students is high. Unplannedpregnancies can be prevented by effective use of contraceptives. To determine the factors contributing to theprevalence of unplanned pregnancies among female university students at Kampala International University-Western Campus (KIU-WC). A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted among 96 female university studentsat KIU-WC. A hand delivered self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data by the researcher. Thelevel of unplanned pregnancies is high among participants (85.2%) who carried pregnancy while at the university.Low socio-economic factors (47.3%) contribute to the prevalence of unplanned pregnancies. Participants alwaysaccessed contraceptives (83.3%) from pharmacies/drug shops (54.4%) and private clinics (38.9%) expensively.Effective use of contraceptives protected majority of the sexually active participants (67.7%). Most pregnanciesamong female students at KIU-WC are unplanned and these unintended pregnancies are due to low socio-economicfactors. This problem can be reversed by the free access and effective use of contraceptive methods by students