Prevalence and reporting of induced abortion in Turkey: two survey techniques

This study was designed and conducted to test the relative reliability of reported induced abortion obtained through a conventional survey technique (direct questioning) as compared with an estimated proportion of women with induced abortion obtained through the randomized response technique. Two independent, nationally representative samples were used, one for each approach. A total of 1,521 women were interviewed in the direct question sample, providing a 70.1 percent response rate. In the randomized response sample, 1,674 women participated in the study, representing a 72.9 percent response rate; 1,044 or 62.4 percent of these women provided usable answers. There were substantial differentials in the successful use among the subcategories of independent variables. Of the 1,044 women in the RRT sample, 33.1 percent were estimated to have had at least one induced abortion during their reproductive lives--a much higher rate than the 13.9 percent obtained from the DQ sample. The factors found to be of relevance in relation to induced abortion including age, education, place of residence, development status of the province where the woman resided, number of pregnancies and living children, occupation, and family type.