dc.description.abstract | The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey indicated that teenage pregnancy rate was
high at 25%; 19% have had a live birth, and 5% were pregnant with at least one child. This
implies that Uganda is not making relevant strides towards harnessing the Demographic
Dividend which requires reduced teenage pregnancies, early marriages which are associated with
high rates maternal mortality, high fertility and high neo natal and child deaths. It also indicates
that Uganda is less likely to achieve the 2030 sustainable Development Goals especially goal 3
which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages target 1 which requires
that by 2030 reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100000 live births.
This study used the 2016 female UDHS Data set aimed to find out the determinant factors of
teenage pregnancies of women aged 15-19 years in the Island districts of Uganda. And results
indicate that this region has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of 48%.
The explanatory variables were; age, education, wealth status, level of the teenager, residence,
her ovulatory knowledge, her contraceptive use, and the household head. At bivariate level age,
residence, ovulatory knowledge, contraceptive use, and household head factors were found to be
significant to teenage pregnancy. At multivariate level, contraceptive use and household head
were found to have a higher association with teenage pregnancy in the Island region than other
factors.
Thus, intervention measures should target availability and accessibility of contraceptives in the
region. Sexuality education as well should be promoted to this region to impact on the teenager’s
knowledge on their ovulation periods and its risky means to conception. Education as a factor
though not found to be significant in this study it has been found significant in other related
literatures. And hence there is need to improve the education attainment to help the teenagers
acquire skills for safer sex, dangers of early marriages, premarital sex, and other benefits of high
education attainment. | en_US |