Abstract:
OBJECTIVESTo assess the social factors affecting for the teenage
pregnancies in a tertiary care setting.
METHOD :
A cross sectional descriptive study was done using a
pretested interviewer administered questionnaire. Al l
teenage pregnant mothers attending the ante natal
clinic of the professorial unit at the De Soyza Hospital
for Women were recruited. Study was conducted for
a period of 8 months from December 2005. Approval
was obtained from the ethical clearance committee
at the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo. Results were
analysed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences forwindos (SPSS) version 11.
RESULTS :
150 teenage pregnant mothers participated to the
study from ages of 15 to 19yrs (mean age 18.37, S D
+/-1.013). 12.7% had studied up to grade 5, 46.7%
have studied up to grade 6 to 10. Onl y 6.7% studied
up to advanced level. None o f them had tertiary
education.64% of teenage mothers were unemployed
and 34.6% worked as non skilled workers. Onl y 1.4%
were skilled. 28% of teenage mothers' had lost their
either father or mother. In 6.2% parents were separated.
35.1% were exposed to marital disharmony of their
parents. O f their parents 40.9% o f mothers and 9.4%
of their fathers were employed abroad. 38.3% of the
teenage mothers had siblings with teenage marriages
and 20.8% had siblings with teenage pregnancies.
75.7% married following a love affair and 32.4%
married without approval from parents.33.3%
had premarital coitus.6% have not registered their
marriage while 2.4% conceived following a sexual
abuse. Amon g 24.3% of proposed marriages 2.9%
were due to financial reasons and rest were due to
cultural reasons. 72.7% of population conceived
within 6 months following their marriage (mean 6.1
SD+/- 5.9).
CONCLUSION S AN D RECOMMENDATIONS :
Maternal deprivation due to foreign employment
(p=0.002) and death (p= 0.003) significantly increases
the risk of teenage pregnancies. Marita l disharmony
of parents (p= 0.001) also contributes significantly.
There is a need for more detailed attention to social
reasons if we are to reduce teenage pregnancies.
