Background
Teenage pregnancies carry an increased risk of adverse obstetric and health outcomes for mothers and children.
Methods
This study assessed the prevalence and predictors of teenage pregnancies over time in Pakistan using the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS). Data on 400 076 ever-married pregnant women aged 15–49 y from four PDHS datasets were used. Teenage pregnancy was the outcome variable, whereas a woman's and her partner's education, occupation, wealth quintile, region, place of residence and access to knowledge on family planning were the explanatory variables. Pooled prevalence was estimated and regression analysis was undertaken to produce an adjusted prevalence ratio with 95% CIs.
Results
Although the prevalence of teenage pregnancy decreased from 54.4% in 1990–1991 to 43.7% in 2017–2018, the pooled prevalence was 42.5% (95% CI 37.9 to 49.6%). The prevalence of teenage pregnancy was significantly associated with place of residence, wealth quintile, education and occupation.
Conclusion
Despite a growing focus on women's education, access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and contraception in the last decade in Pakistan, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is still high. There is a pressing need to develop appropriate strategies for increasing access to education, SRH services and use of contraception in Pakistan.
Introduction
Early initiation of breastfeeding can be predicted by socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of birthing women, and health care support for breastfeeding. However, the relative influence of many of these characteristics on early initiation of breastfeeding has not been established in Sri Lanka. Therefore, we aimed to identify predictors of early initiation of breastfeeding across a wide range of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted with women who had a live baby across four government hospitals in Sri Lanka. Women who were 12 hours post-birth and still admitted to the hospital were invited to participate. Data were collected by eliciting quantitative data through participant interviews and extracting additional information from their medical records. Contribution of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics to explaining variations in early initiation of breastfeeding was estimated using binary logistic regression analysis with simultaneous adjustment.
Results
The response rate was 83.8%, with 302 women participating. The proportion of women who initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth was 64.5% (n=195). Women were more likely to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth if their body mass index was < 18.5 kg/m2 (OR: 4.17; 95% CI: 1.23-14.05), and less likely if they gave birth by elective caesarean section (OR: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.14-0.51), were administered antibiotics (OR: 0.4; 95% CI: 1.05-4.73) and had a baby with respiratory distress (OR: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01-0.57).
Conclusion
Current intrapartum care practices associated with elective caesarean and antibiotic administration, and immediate care of babies with respiratory distress, should be critically reviewed for understanding the mechanisms underlying their negative impact on breastfeeding initiation in Sri Lanka.
Self-medication is the use of non-prescribed medicines by people based on their own initiatives. Self-medication is defined as "obtaining and consuming medication without professional supervision regarding indication, dosage, and duration of treatment" 1. The concept of self-medication exists since ages and it is prevalent throughout the world 2. Self-medication, as one of the elements of self-care, is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat self
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.