Speaker
Description
Introduction: Teenage pregnancy is a major public health problem with huge consequences. This calls for multi-stakeholders involved in issues of teenagers' sexual and reproductive health to achieve the SDG target of 2030. This systematic review aimed to estimate the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and its associated factors in Uganda. Methods: After prospective registration (PROSPERO CRD42023486460), a literature search was conducted in PubMed, African Journals Online, and Google Scholar in December 2023. Observational studies that reported the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among teenagers were included. Studies were assessed for risk of bias using Egger’s test. The data were pooled using random effects models to estimate the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and I² statistic capturing heterogeneity. results: From 918 citations, 10 studies (4143 participants) were included. Of these, 5 (50%) were high-quality studies and 5 (50%) were medium quality. The overall pooled prevalence of teenage pregnancy was 25.5% (CI 13.7, 39.45, I2 = 98.94%). The Central-Eastern region had the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancy at 31.67% (CI 19.47, 45.11, I² = 94.75%). Rural residential area OR = 0.16 (95% CI 0.04, 0.61), no history of contraceptive use OR = 0.28 (95% CI 0.10, 0.79), and lack of knowledge of contraceptives OR = 0.19 (95% CI 0.05, 0.70) were factors associated with teenage pregnancy.
Conclusion: Pooling studies of mixed quality revealed a slightly higher prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Uganda. This review provides valuable insight into developing interventions and policies to reduce the burden of teenage pregnancy from disadvantaged backgrounds.
