An evaluation of the current state of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women in Ghana.
OBJECTIVE
To provide a current account of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Ghana (West Africa), a priority area in achieving the World Health Organization's Millennium Development Goals.


METHODS
The study was observational. Three-hundred ninety Ghanaian women attending cervical cancer screening were surveyed about their SRHR. The data were analyzed with chi-squared test (p ≤ 0.05, two-sided).


RESULTS
22.1% had a life-time history of non-consensual sexual experience and 55.4% a previous history of abortion, mostly using services of a registered clinic (68.5%). Experience of sexual violence increased life-time risk of abortion (p = 0.018). The overall use of contraceptives was high (>60%); however, condom use during sexual intercourse with a new partner was low (23%), even among the highly educated women (32.7%) and women who stated to have received information on the risks and benefits of condom use (26.0%). Although condom use among the highly educated women was low, it was still 2 times higher than among the lower educated women, 15.7% (p < 0.001). There was also less condom use among the women with multiple sexual partners compared to single-partnered women (p = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
More than a decade after the inception of the Millennium Development Goals, there is still work to be done in Ghana, especially on education and sexual violence.
a Leiden University Medical Center , The Hague , The Netherlands .
Bismark
B
Adjei
b Department of Medical Statistics , and.
Ron
R
Wolterbeek
c Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology , Leiden University Medical Center , Leiden , The Netherlands.
Alexander A W
AA
Peters
D000328:Adult; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D060728:Reproductive Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017584:Reproductive History; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014933:Women's Rights; D014944:World Health Organization
Abortion; Africa; Ghana; WHO’s millennium development goals; contraceptive use; observational study; sexual and reproductive health and rights; unwanted sexual experience