Factors Associated with Teenage Pregnancy: A Case Control Study

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy is a major public health problem worldwide. Studies shows that teenage mothers are more likely to experience pregnancy-related complications compared to normal age mothers. This study was conducted to find the associated factors of teenage pregnancy. Hospital based case-control study was adopted among teenage mothers (15-19 years) and non-teenage (20-29 years) postnatal mothers admitted in two medical college teaching hospitals of Pokhara. Systematic random sampling was used to select the respondents. Study sample comprises 432 respondents with 216 cases and 216 controls. The data was collected by using structured interview schedule and collected data were entered in MS excel with validated command and analyzed with SPSS 16 version. The study resulted that teenage pregnancy was associated with disadvantaged ethnicity (AOR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.14-3.56) agriculture (AOR: 5.37, 95% CI: 1.86-15.49) and labour (AOR: 6.22, 95% CI: 2.56-15.11) family occupation, lower education (AOR: 2.57, 95% CI: 1.39-4.76), nonworking status of women (AOR: 2.87, 95% CI: 1.60-5.14), unplanned pregnancy (AOR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.101-3.21), incomplete immunization (AOR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.11-4.84) and preterm gestational age (AOR: 3.23, 95% CI: 1.46-7.15).It is recommended to design and implement health education interventions especially for disadvantaged groups and people with low socio economic to reduce teenage pregnancy; to emphasize on providing opportunities for higher education, employment and empowerment and increasing utilization of family planning and maternal health services among teenagers.

Key words: Teenage pregnancy, associated factors, case control study, outcomes, adolescents