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Abortion Incidence and Severity of Complications in Kenya 2022, Knowledgeable Informants Survey(KIS)

KENYA, 2023
Health and Well-Being (HaW)
Kenneth Juma
Last modified June 10, 2025 Page views 13688 Metadata DDI/XML JSON

Identification

IDNO
DDI-KEN-APHRC-KAS-KIS-2022-v1.0
Title
Abortion Incidence and Severity of Complications in Kenya 2022, Knowledgeable Informants Survey(KIS)
Subtitle
Knowledgeable Informants Survey(KIS)
Country
Name Country code
KENYA KEN
Abstract
Background: Unsafe abortion remains a significant cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in many African countries, including Kenya. In Kenya, abortion is legally restricted except when the life or health of a pregnant woman is in danger and in cases of rape or incest. The restrictions around abortion, pervasive stigma and negative attitudes of healthcare providers often increase the risks of unsafe abortion. Ten years ago, a study by the Ministry of Health, the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), and the Guttmacher Institute reported close to 464,690 induced abortions in 2012. Given the time that has passed since that study, and changes in the landscape of abortion in Kenya (e.g., the availability of medication abortion drugs, enactment of the 2017 Health Act that defined "trained providers" to include nurses and midwives, and the 2019 High Court ruling that reinstated the withdrawn Standards and guidelines for reduction of maternal mortality from unsafe abortion), policymakers and advocates in Kenya have raised the need for another national abortion incidence study.
Objectives: To determine the incidence of induced abortions and the severity of abortion-related complications in Kenya.
Methods: The proposed study will employ a quantitative cross-sectional design. The study will have four separate surveys: i) a nationally representative Health Facility Survey (HFS) to estimate the number of women who receive post-abortion care (PAC) following abortion complications, ii) a Knowledgeable Informants Survey (KIS) to collect information on the proportion of all women having abortions who receive facility-based treatment for abortion-related complications, iii) a Respondent-Driven Sampling survey (RDS) of women who have had an abortion to understand abortion incidence and safety, and iv) a Prospective Morbidity Survey (PMS) to provide the data necessary to describe characteristics of women receiving treatment for abortion complications, the severity of complications, the type of treatment received, and the delays in access to PAC. The PMS will also include a limited component involving clinical data abstraction from the medical charts/records of PAC clients.
Utility of study: Evidence generated will contribute to a greater understanding of the incidence of induced abortions and the magnitude and severity of abortion-related complications. The evidence will support investment and decision-making toward addressing the contributors of unsafe abortions and unintended pregnancies, improving access to quality PAC services, and ultimately improving adolescent and maternal health in Kenya.

Version

Version Date
2024-11-01
Version Notes
N/A

Scope

Keywords
Keyword
Abortion
Induced Abortion
Spontaneous Abortion
Safe abortion
unsafe abortion
Incidence of abortion

Coverage

Geographic Coverage
National coverage
Unit of Analysis
professionals knowledgeable about the conditions of abortion and the provision of post-abortion care abortion in Kenya
Universe
The survey covered professionals knowledgeable about the conditions of abortion and the provision of post-abortion care abortion in Kenya, they included medical doctors and midwives in public and private practice, policymakers, advocates, researchers, NGO staff, community health workers, and community leaders

Producers and sponsors

Authoring entity/Primary investigators
Agency Name Affiliation
Kenneth Juma African Population and Heath Research Center
Producers
Name Affiliation Role
Margaret Giorgio Guttmacher Institute Co-Investigator and a Senior Research Scientist
Yohannes Dibaba Wado African Population and Heath Research Center Co-Investigator and a Senior Research Scientist
Jesse Philbin Guttmacher Institute Senior Research Associate
Sherine Athero African Population and Heath Research Center Research Officer
Esther Mutuku African Population and Heath Research Center Data analyst
Boniface Ushie African Population and Heath Research Center Co-Investigator and an expert researcher
Hellen Akinyi African Population and Heath Research Center Data Documentarist
Isaiah Akuku African Population and Heath Research Center Data Manager
Bonface Ingumba African Population and Heath Research Center Data Governance Officer
Funding Agency/Sponsor
Name Abbreviation Role
Hewlett Foundation HF Funder
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation NORAD Funder
Other Identifications/Acknowledgments
Name Affiliation Role
Ministry of Health,Kenya MOH Ministerial partners

Sampling

Sampling Procedure
KIS was conducted with a purposive sample of professionals who are well informed about abortion provision and post-abortion care in the public and private sectors, and in rural and urban areas. The KIS sample includes both health and non-health professionals (e.g., law, media, teachers, research, education, nursing, policymaking, advocacy, and family planning program implementation and management) who are nevertheless well-informed about the context of abortion (access, safety, care-seeking behavior) in their regions.
Deviations from the Sample Design
N/A
Response Rate
KIS had 297 observation
Weighting
N/A

Data Collection

Dates of Data Collection (YYYY/MM/DD)
Start date End date
2023-08-25 2023-10-18
Mode of data collection
Face-to-face [f2f]
Supervision
The Interview was conducted by a team of field interviewers. Each team included 6 interviewers, in addition to 1 team lead.

The supervisor's role was to coordinate field data collection and manage teams. They also assigned tasks to interviewers, spot-checked work, maintained control documents, and sent completed questionnaires and progress reports to the central data portal.
Frequent Field visits were made after every two weeks for period of data collection by the Kenya abortion members
Type of Research Instrument
KIS was used to sample and recruit both health and non-health professionals (e.g., law, media, teachers, research, education, nursing, policymaking, advocacy, and family planning program implementation and management) who are nevertheless well-informed about the context of abortion (access, safety, care-seeking behavior) in their regions.
Interviews will be carried out at the respondents' place of work or location of the respondents' choice
The questionnaire was written in English. It explored a number of questions that served to refine further an understanding and the opinion of abortion incidence and safety in Kenya.

Data Processing

Cleaning Operations
the software used was survey CTO for data colllection, the data was later downloaded in STATA format.
Other Processing
N/A

Data Appraisal

Estimates of Sampling Error
N/A

Data access

Contact
Name Affiliation Email
African Population and Heath Research Center APHRC datarequest@aphrc.org
Conditions
All non-APHRC staff seeking to use data generated at the Center must obtain written approval to use the data from the Director of Research. This form is developed to assess applications for data use and facilitate responsible sharing of data with external partners/collaborators/researchers. By entering into this agreement, the undersigned agrees to use these data only for the purpose for which they were obtained and to abide by the conditions outlined below:

1. Data Ownership: The data remain the property of APHRC; any unauthorized reproduction and sharing of the data is strictly prohibited. The user will, therefore, not release nor permit others to use or release the data to any other person without the written authorization from the Center.

2. Purpose: The provided data must be used for the purpose specified in the Data Request Form; any other use not specified in the form must receive additional or separate authorization.

3. Respondent Identifiers: The Center is committed to protecting the identity of the respondents who provide information in its research. All analytical data sets (both qualitative and quantitative) released by the Data Unit MUST are stripped of respondent identifiers to protect the identity of the respondents. By accepting to use APHRC data, the user is pledging that he/she will not, under any circumstance, regenerate the identifiers or permit others to use the data to learn the identity of any individual, household or community included in any data set.

4. Confidentiality pledge: The user will not use nor permit others to use the data to report any information in the data sets that could identify, directly or by inference, individuals or households.

5. Reporting of errors or inconsistencies: The user will promptly notify the Head of the Statistics and Survey Unit any errors discovered in the data as soon as the errors are discovered.

6. Publications resulting from APHRC data: The Center requires external collaborators to work with APHRC staff on all publications resulting from its data. In order to facilitate this, lead authors should send a detailed concept note of the paper (including the background, rationale, data, analytical methods, and preliminary findings) to the Principle Investigator (or Theme Leader) for the project (with a copy to the Director of Research), who will circulate the abstract to concerned researchers for possible expression of interest in participating in the publication as co-authors. Any exception to the involvement of APHRC staff should be approved by the Director of Research, APHRC.

7. Security: The user will take responsibility for the security of the data by ensuring that the data are used and stored in a secure environment where access is password protected. This will ensure that non-authorized people should not have access to the data.

8. Loss of privilege to use data: In the event that APHRC determines that the data user is in violation of the conditions for using the data, or if the user wishes to cancel this agreement, the user will destroy the data files provided to him/her. APHRC retains the right to revoke this agreement or informs publishers to withhold publication of any work based wholly or in part on its data if the conditions for using the data are violated.

9. Acknowledgement: Any work/reports from this data must acknowledge APHRC as the source of these data. For example, the suggested acknowledgement for NUHDSS data is:

"This research uses livelihoods data collected under the longitudinal Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) since 2006. The NUHDSS is carried out by the African Population and Health Research Center in two slums settlements (Korogocho and Viwandani) in Nairobi City."

Additionally all funders, the study communities that provided the data, and staff who collected and analyzed or processed the data should be acknowledged.

10. Deposit of Reports/Papers: The user should submit electronic and paper copies of all publications generated using APHRC data to the Policy Engagement and Communications Department, with copies to the Director of Research.

11. Change of contact details: The user will promptly inform the Director of Research of any change in your personal details as contained on this data request form.
Citation requirement
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download

Metadata production

Document ID
DDI-KEN-APHRC-KAS-KIS-2022-v1.0
Producers
Name Abbreviation Role
African Population and Health Research Center APHRC Documentation of the DDI
Date of Production
2024-11-01
Document version
Version 1.0(NOVEMBER 2024)