Pregnancy Readiness in Married Female Adolescents from Different Ethnic Groups in Probolinggo District, Indonesia

Abstract

Background: Physical readiness for pregnancy potentially affects the new born’s health status. The study aims to analyze pregnancy readiness in married female adolescents.Methods: Data were collected in Probolinggo District, Indonesia from 2012-2014. This study involved 760 married female adolescents (< 20 years old) as the analysis units. There are 2 major ethnic groups in Probolinggo District (Javanese and Madurese), as well as a small number of other ethnic groups. The study’s dependent variable was pregnancy readiness, while its independent variable was ethnicity. In addition, other independent variables were also analyzed, for example, marital status, age, education, and employment. The final analysis was done using a binary logistic regression. Pregnancy readiness variable was seen from other sub-variables, such as anemia status, body weight, stature, nutritional status, and mid-upper-arm circumference. Results: Married female adolescents mostly suffered from anemia. The respondents mostly had normal anthropometry. Regarding pregancy readiness variable, married female adolescents from all ethnicities married female adolescentswere not ready to get pregnant. Madurese married female adolescents were 0.563 times readier to get pregnant compared to Javanese married female adolescents (OR 0.563; 95% CI 0.369-0.857). There was no significant difference between Madurese ethnic adolescents and the Java-Madurese ones and others. Moreover, there was no significant difference between educational levels and the respondents’ readiness for pregnancy. Conclusions: There were partial differences in readiness for pregancy in married female adolescents from different ethnic groupsmarried female adolescents. Madurese married female adolescents had a lower possibility of prenancy readiness than Javanese ones.