Article

Factors Contributing To Teenage Pregnancy Among Girls In Awere Sub County, Pader District

Abstract

Background: Teenage pregnancy still poses a serious global community health alarm in already established and still establishing world; high, middle- and low-income countries. Most people become sexually active before their 20th birthday hence prone to teenage pregnancy when the enabling factors are prevailing. In Uganda, teenage pregnancy has 25% prevalence with regional variations. However, teenage pregnancy prevalence in Pader district was at 29.7%. Objective: To unearth the factors contributing to teenage pregnancy among girls in Awere Sub County, Pader District. Methods and materials: This study was a Cross- sectional descriptive one and it utilized quantitative data obtained through random sampling technique to identify the participants. Data was gathered via administration of questionnaire. Analysis with SPSS version 20 was executed and results were displayed in terms of frequencies and percentages packaged in tables and figures for categorical and binary data as means and standard deviation for continuous data. Results: This study revealed that 43(34.7%) of the respondents very strongly agreed on poverty to be the most contributing factor to teenage pregnancy, only few teenage girls 3(2.4%) very strongly agree that education level contributes to teenage pregnancy. and majority 69(55.6%) of the respondents very strongly agreed that peer influence is the leading contributor to teenage pregnancy. Conclusion and Recommendation: Demographic, behavioral, family and community factors are crucial in anticipating the trajectory of teenage pregnancy in Awere Sub County. Interventions focusing on: educating teenage girls to break poverty cycle is key. This would improve the living status of teenage girls, families, community, and the country at large. Exposing the teenage girls to reproductive health concepts to widen their understanding on how to manage themselves so that they do not fall a victim of teenage pregnancy. Bringing contraceptive methods nearer to the community to improve utilization can also reduce teenage pregnancy.

Keywords: Teenage pregnancy; peer influence; educational level; poverty