The global movement for legal, accessible abortion is growing. Our staff and partners in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Malawi and India are working to ensure all people can access high-quality abortion care.
The global movement for legal, accessible abortion is growing. Our staff and partners in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Malawi and India are working to ensure all people can access high-quality abortion care.
Determination of medical abortion success by women and community health volunteers in Nepal using a symptom checklist
We sought to determine if female community health volunteers (FCHVs) and literate women in Nepal can accurately determine success of medical abortion (MA) using an 8-question symptom checklist. Women’s and FCHVs’ assessments were compared to experienced abortion providers using standard of care. Women’s self-assessment of MA success agreed with abortion providers’ determinations 85% of the time. Agreement between FCHVs and providers was 82%. We concluded that use of a checklist to determine MA success is a promising strategy. However, further refinement of such a tool, particularly for low-literacy settings, is needed before widespread use.
Authors: Andersen, Kathryn L., Mary Fjerstad, Indira Basnett, Shailes Neupane, Valerie Acre, Sharad Sharma, Emily Jackson