Factors associated with adolescent school girl’s pregnancy in Kumbo East Health District North West region Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction Teenage pregnancy is a social problem in Cameroon in general and in Kumbo East in particular. This results in physical, psychological and socio-economic consequences on the teenage mother, family and the society as a whole. In spite of studies and interventions that have been and are being implemented, the prevalence of unplanned teenage pregnancy in Kumbo East Health District is still high, suggesting that more efforts are required to achieve effective preventive measures. The aim of this study was to determine factors associated with adolescent school girl's pregnancy in Kumbo East health district. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used and a simple random sampling technique was used to select 293 respondents aged 15 to 19year. The district hospital antenatal clinics and the Health Centres were selected. Data was obtained from 292 participants under the age of 20 years who were willing using a questionnaire administered through face-to-face interviews. Results The study show a high prevalence (60.75%) of teenage pregnancy in the sampled antenatal clinics of Kumbo East Health District attributable to inadequate considerations given to factors associated with school girl's pregnancy. This study has indicated that the age of teenager at first pregnancy, low contraceptive use, socio-economic status and physical violence are factors that are greatly associated with teenage pregnancy. Among the reasons contributing to the low use of contraceptives are: sexually activity, lack of knowledge, fear of side effects, including sterility, condoms disappearing in the womb and inequality of power with sexual partners. This study shows that teenagers obtain information mainly from school (53%) and relatives (20%). Conclusion The use of contraceptive alone may not reduce teenage pregnancy, however double method is very effective but addressing the impact of poverty on teenagers, empowering them on their rights and information in order to make right choices is very important.

Teenage pregnancy and its associated factors among teenage females in Farta Woreda, Northwest, Ethiopia, 2020: A community-based cross-sectional study

“…The finding of this study was low compared with the finding from Kampala, Uganda, which found that four in every ten teenagers attending Naguru teenage Centre are pregnant 19 and that from northwest region of Cameroon (60.75%) 20 . This is mainly due to differences in the study population; the previous study was conducted on teenagers, which may significantly increase the prevalence of teenage pregnancy.…”

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Teenage Pregnancy among Secondary and High School Students in the Tiko Health District, South West Region, Cameroon

“…The findings revealed that the majority of participants (70.40%) were aware of teenage pregnancy. This was a lot similar to the 68% and 68.95% average seen in a 2016 South African study [11] and 2018 Cameroonian study [22] respectively.…”

“…The results revealed that among sexually active individuals, 25.42% of participants never carried out contraception. This is a lot lower than the 46.42% reported by a 2018 study in Cameroon [22]. A probable reason for this disparity is because our study focused on both male and female adolescents but this other study focused mainly on female adolescents.…”

“…The overall prevalence of teenage pregnancy was found to be 5.20%. This is lower than the values reported by a study carried out by the University teaching hospital of Yaoundé of 12% [19], the 13.3% reported by a 2015 study at the Buea health district [20], the 11% reported by a 2016 study in South Africa [21], and also lower than the 60.5% reported by a 2018 study in Cameroon [22]. A possible reason for this disparity is the fact that our research was carried out in schools and a majority of the teenage mothers had dropped out of school.…”

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“…A análise dos dados desta pesquisa evidenciou que a idade das mulheres que abortaram pode ser considerada precoce, caracterizando-se muitas vezes casos de gravidez não planejada na adolescência ou na vida adulta jovem. Cabe refletir, então, que a gravidez não planejada e indesejada está associada a início tardio e má adesão ao pré-natal, ausência de aconselhamento reprodutivo e assistência préconcepção (9,10) .…”