Adolescent pregnancy in West Turkey. Cross sectional survey of married adolescents

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to determine both the fertility characteristics of married adolescent women in Denizli province center and the adolescent pregnancy rate and also some factors that could occur with adolescent pregnancy.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Denizli province center in the year 2001. According to the Turkish Demographic Health Survey 1998 statistics, the percentage of married adolescents between 15-19 years of age who have begun to give birth is 9.3-10.2%. The sample size of 3471 was determined using Epi Info software. To reach this sample size, 5 of the 25 health clinics in Denizli province center were chosen by simple random sampling method.

RESULTS: Approximately 6.4% of the adolescents were married, 4.9% had been pregnant as an adolescent, 4.8% had delivered a baby, 23.3% of the married adolescents had never been pregnant, 23.3% were pregnant with their first child, and 51.2% were mothers; 76.7% had been pregnant one or more times. The majority of the married adolescent women in the research group (57.2%) do not use any method of family planning, followed by 15.7% who use an intrauterine device. Age, lower degree of education (less than 8 years) and unemployment were identified as risk factors for adolescent pregnancy.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that although the frequency of adolescent pregnancy in the region is lower than the mean value in Turkey, it is higher compared with other countries. Age, education <8 years and unemployment are risk factors for adolescent pregnancy.