RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To find out the requirement and to evaluate the effect of post-abortion counseling and education (PACE) among unmarried abortion adolescents. METHODS: The subjects of the study were unmarried adolescents from 10 to 24 years of age who wanted induced abortion in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from December 2007 to April 2008. Totally 122 subjects received the intervention of PACE were considered as intervention group. Meanwhile, 67 subjects refused the intervention of PACE were considered as no intervention group. Two groups were both investigated the requirements of PACE before abortion and were followed-up at one year after abortion. RESULTS: 97.4% (184/189) of 189 unmarried abortion adolescents were willing to receive PACE, 48.1% (91/189) of them hoped to receive PACE when saw the doctor, 72.0% (136/189) of them required face-to-face counseling during PACE. During the year after abortion, 74% (57/77) cases in intervention group and 24% (10/41) cases in no intervention group took effective contraception (P < 0.01), while 1% (1/77) of intervention group and 10% (4/41) of no intervention group had unwanted pregnancy. There were significant different for the rate of unwanted pregnancy between two groups (P = 0.034). CONCLUSION: For unmarried abortion adolescents, the intervention of PACE may markedly increase the rate of effective contraception used and decrease the rate of another unwanted pregnancy.