Prevalence and correlates associated with early childbearing among teenage girls in Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis

BACKGROUND: Teenage childbearing remains a significant global health concern, and in nations with limited resources, it is the major cause of newborn and maternal deaths. Early teenage childbearing is still Ethiopia’s public health issue. Therefore, the goal of this study was to identify the prevalence and correlates of influencing early childbearing among teenage girls across Ethiopia. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. A multistage stratified cluster sampling strategy based on the community was used to include the 3,498 participants in total. To determine the significantly correlated factors that influence adolescent pregnancy, a multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was used. The factors that have a significant association with early childbearing were identified using the Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) and 95% Confidence Interval (CI). RESULTS: This study demonstrated that 10.3% of teens across the country had children at an early age. The odds of early childbearing among teenage girls increased with first marriages occurring before the age of 18, non-formal education, being from a lower- or middle-class family, not using contraceptives, following Muslim or other religious beliefs, and being aware of the fertile window. Teenagers who had exposure to the media, however, had a reduced chance of becoming pregnant early. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that early teenage childbearing is still Ethiopia’s most significant public health problem. Therefore, the Ethiopian government should ban early marriage while also taking steps to reduce the risk through formal education, improved access to reproductive health education, and contraception, particularly for adolescent girls from low-income families and, by educating religious institutions about pregnancy dangers.