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FACTORS INFLUENCING TEENAGE PREGNANCY: A CASE STUDY OF EASTERN UGANDA

Teenage pregnancy is a global problem that occurs in high, middle- and low-income countries. Uganda is one of the countries with highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa and the figures have increased during the Covid-19 period and mostly in the Eastern region of the country. Therefore, this current study aimed at examining the related factors contributing to teenage pregnancy in Eastern Uganda as the main objective. The study used secondary data from UDHS 2016. A sample size of 1,017 teenagers from Eastern Uganda was considered and data was analyzed using SPSS software at two levels “Univar ate analysis which included frequency distribution tables and bi-variate analysis which included the measure of association using the p-value” Results indicated that majority of the teenage respondents were not pregnant by the time of the survey. The study results also showed that most pregnant teenagers were from rural areas due to the fact that rural adolescents lack access to health services and may not afford the existing health services. Majority heard their first sex in the age group of 12-14 years, majority started cohabiting in the age group of 15 -19 years, majority came from the middle-income families, majority where Catholics, majority attained primary education and the majority were never in union. The bivariate analysis indicated age at firs sex, age at first cohabitation, wealth index, marital status and place of residence were statistically associated with teenage pregnancy since the p-value was less than 0.05. however, education and religion were not significantly associated with teenage pregnancy. Therefore, Social policies designed specifically to mitigate this practice among teenagers could prove effective in reducing teenage pregnancy in Uganda.

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Author: arinda precious & auma winnie
Contributed by: asbat digital library
Institution: makerere university
Level: university
Sublevel: under-graduate
Type: dissertations