Adolescent Pregnancy in An Urban Community; A Study in the Sunyani Municipality

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy is a social issue of public health importance that has received attention from many program designers, policy makers and most population researchers globally. It plaques both developed and developing countries, but it is more prevalent in developing countries especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many factors such as early marriage, peer influence, religious and cultural beliefs, adolescent sexual behaviour and socioeconomic status have been linked to the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy. The study therefore sought to investigate the factors influencing adolescent pregnancy in the Sunyani Municipality, the challenges and the support systems available to adolescent mothers. An unmatched case control study was used for the study. A multi stage sampling which include stratified sampling technique, consecutive sampling and systematic sampling was used to select 120 cases and 125 controls for the study. Date was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed with STATA version 13. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the factors that influence adolescent pregnancy by summarizing them into percentages, and frequencies. Regression analysis was carried out to test for association between the predictor and the outcome variables. The findings of the study indicated that current occupation of the adolescents, and influences of social media on adolescent sexual behaviour were the major factors that influence adolescent pregnancy within the Sunyani municipality. There is therefore the need for the establishment of more adolescent health corners to cater for the health needs of the adolescents. Girl-child education is also an important solution to deal with the increasing prevalence of adolescent pregnancy.