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Correlates of teenage pregnancies in Sub-Saharan African countries

Martin Enock Palamuleni, North West University

Despite efforts to improve adolescent reproductive health issues, teenage pregnancies remain a major public health problem in most countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper studied the social and economic factors of teenage pregnancies in four SSA countries, namely, Burundi, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The study used data extracted from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys in the selected countries. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to understand the factors associated with teenage pregnancies. The prevalence of teenage pregnancies ranged from 30.3% in Malawi, 23.1% in Zimbabwe, 19.1% in Namibia, 16.9% in South Africa and 7.9% in Burundi. The results of logistic regression indicate that age, marital status and ever use of family planning are significant factors associated with teenage pregnancies in all the five countries. The study recommends the strengthening of adolescent reproductive health programmes including the implementation of family life education.

Keywords: Children and youth, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Fertility and childbirth, Cross-country comparative analyses

See paper.

  Presented in Session P3.