Teenage Pregnancy and Prevalence of Abortion among In-school Adolescents in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in public secondary schools in Ilorin to determine pregnancy outcomes among adolescents. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 521 respondents for the study. The research instrument was a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire.<br />All respondents were between 10-19 years (Mean=15.84+2.269) with 53% being males. About one third (28.2%) of all the respondents were sexually active; 63.9% were males and 36.1% were females. Female respondents who had ever been pregnant constitute 5.7% of all sexually active female respondents while 17% of all sexually active males had ever impregnated a girl. Abortion prevalence was 100% for females while 87.5% of males that have ever gotten a girl pregnant told the girls to abort the pregnancies. All the abortions were induced and done by unqualified personnel.<br />Youth programmes should be designed to provide adolescents with adequate knowledge on reproductive and sexual issues including pregnancy prevention

Health risk behaviors and sexual initiation among in-school adolescents in rural communities in southwestern Nigeria

“…This may still be comparatively higher when compared to the abortion rate of 47% recorded in another Nigerian study. Though this study was done in the Islamic religious and relatively nomadic region of the country and where early marriage is permissible (21). Having an abortion has a lot of implications for reproductive health including septic abortions, damage to reproductive organs, blood borne infections, uterine perforations, and mortality.…”

“…Risky sexual behavior identified in this study was supported by many other related studies. These include early initiation of sex as reflected by a mean age at sexual initiation around 15 years (16)(17)(18), having multiple sexual partners (18,19) and poor use of condoms (20) or any other type of modern contraceptive methods (17,21).…”

Sexual Behaviour, Knowledge and Use of Contraceptives Among Undergraduate Students

“…Many of the young adults have initiated their first sexual activity in their adolescent age. In Nigeria, up to 6% of all sexually active adolescent girls may have been pregnant and engaged in induced abortion 1 . Sexual behaviour has been defined as any activity that induces sexual arousal and two major determinants have been noted to be (1) genetics 2 and (2) degree of sociocultural regulation exerted on an individual to express sexuality 3,4 .…”

Sexual practices and its predictors among in-school adolescents in an urban city in North Central Nigeria

“…While male and female adolescents have many reproductive health challenges, the female adolescents have more reproductive health needs that are gender specific (5). For instance, the female adolescent stands a risk of pregnancy, unsafe abortion complications, pregnancy-induced hypertension, obstructed labour, emotional traumas associated with unwanted pregnancy among others (6). The major objective of this study is to assess the sexual practices of adolescents attending schools in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria.…”