Socio - economic determinants of teen pregnancies in Mozambique

Abstract

Teen pregnancy is considered a worldwide public health issue. According to United Nations Population Fund (2014), Mozambique was reported to be the country with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Southern Africa region. From 2011 to 2015, the proportion of pregnant teens rose significantly from 38% to 46% (IMASIDA, 2015). Thereby, it is important to study factors leading to teen pregnancy incidence in order to draw policy recommendations in the issue. Previous studies in Mozambique applied a qualitative approach. This study fills the literature gaps using the binary logistic regression with a national cross– sectional dataset provided by IMASIDA-Demographic Health survey (2015) is applied using a sample of 354 women aged 20 years old as the dataset allows a retrospective approach. The age group 20 years old is at the boundary of teenage, therefore women at aged 20 are assumed to maintain the same characteristics as their teenage. A descriptive analysis was firstly performed to compare characteristics of young women in different socioeconomic factors. Secondly, a logistic regression model was applied to predict the likelihood of young women aged 20 either ever been pregnant or currently pregnant in the last 5 years preceding the survey. The results of this study show education attainment is highly significant in explaining teen pregnancy in Mozambique. Young women with higher level of education are less likely to either ever been pregnant or currently pregnant than those with primary and lower education. The region of residence also showed to be associated with teenage pregnancy. Young women living in South region, a proximity to the capital city, are less likely to either ever been pregnant or currently pregnant than those living in North region. This study shows that a strong intervention in promoting higher education for teens and reduce spatial inequality is needed to reduce teen pregnancy incidence.