| dc.description.abstract | Unintended teenage pregnancy is a very serious and social problem in Mubende District in particular and in the whole county in general. This is as a result of psychological, physical and socio-economic consequences on the teenage mother, family and society as a whole. Even though studies have been conducted concerning the prevalence and risk factors that cause teenage pregnancy in Uganda before, detailed reports are scanty, especially for Mubende district.
Despite the fact that interventions and studies have been implemented, the prevalence of unintended teenage pregnancy in Uganda is still high, suggesting that more efforts are required to archive preventive effective measures.
The aim of this study was to explore and establish the socio-demographic, socio-economic and examine the health system factors as well as to establish the proportion of teenage pregnancy among women attending antenatal services in Mubende regional referral hospital in Mubende district of Uganda.
A cross-sectional remote design was used. Respondents were divided into five main strata (stratified sampling method) according to the days they attended antenatal care. From the strata, respondents, were selected using simple random sampling. Data was collected from 174 participants aged 14 to 19 years of age using a questionnaire administered through face to face interview.
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data and comparisons between socio-demographic ,socio- economic, health system factors and unintended teenage pregnancy were conducted using the Chi- quare (P≤0.05).
Findings revealed that unintended teenage pregnancy accounted for 87.5 percent of teenagers which is strongly linked to low education levels, early school dropout, unemployment, inability to access food, early sex and marriage, socio-economic status lack of knowledge of reproductive and sexual health, domestic violence, low self-esteem, substance abuse, transactional sex due to chronic poverty, lack of counseling concerning sex education, parents‟ negligence, lack of knowledge about sex education, inadequate health system services,difficulty transport means, low contraceptive use.
We therefore recommend that eradicating myths and misconceptions surrounding the use of contraceptives and condoms, teenager emancipation and empowerment in decision making and economic stability, promoting awareness on human rights, provision of career guidance,implications of early marriage and issues centered at reproductive and sexual rights. Multisectorial approach, including the government, Non-government organization (NGOs) and communities, is required to implement these recommendations. | en_US |
