Women's experiences interacting with the drug seller, types of medications, dosages and administration routes
| Women who completed both follow-up interviews (n=394) | ||
| % | n | |
| How women presented themselves to the drug seller* | ||
| Told drug seller she wanted to end a pregnancy. | 50.5 | 199 |
| Told drug seller she wanted to purchase misoprostol or other specific brand name medicine. | 16.2 | 64 |
| Told the drug seller she wanted to bring back a late period. | 39.3 | 155 |
| Told drug seller something else. | 1.3 | 5 |
| Types of medicine women reported receiving† | ||
| Misoprostol | 69.0 | 272 |
| Misoprostol+mifepristone | 1.8 | 7 |
| Unknown medicine‡ | 25.4 | 100 |
| Missing | 3.8 | 15 |
| Dosage of medication prescribed by drug seller§ | ||
| Less than the WHO-recommended dosage (<800 mcg misoprostol) | 43.7 | 172 |
| 800 mcg misoprostol | 17.0 | 67 |
| 1000–1400 mcg misoprostol | 1.3 | 5 |
| 1600–2400 mcg misoprostol | 0.5 | 2 |
| 200 mg mifepristone and 800 mcg misoprostol | 0.8 | 3 |
| Not assessed | 36.8 | 145 |
| Routes of administration of the medication prescribed by drug seller¶ | ||
| Suboptimal route (oral misoprostol) | 38.6 | 152 |
| Optimal route (buccal, vaginal or sublingual misoprostol) | 19.0 | 75 |
| Drug seller did not say | 0.3 | 1 |
| Not assessed | 42.1 | 166 |
*Multiple responses were allowed.
†Data on types of medicine received are not available for 15 women due to missing responses.
‡'Unknown’ means the woman did not know what medication she took, either because she was never told or because she could not remember. Although the medication was unknown to her, it still could have been misoprostol or another abortifacient.
§The medication dosage could only be assessed among women who answered specific questions about the numbers of each type of pills they were given, and who either knew what medication(s) they were given or for whom we were able to, with reasonable confidence, parse out what medication(s) they were given based on their answers to related questions.
¶The administration route could only be assessed among women for whom we could identify the medication(s) given. Since WHO guidelines recommend that mifepristone be administered orally and misoprostol be administered buccally, vaginally or sublingually, any administration route instructions that diverge from these recommendations are considered suboptimal.