Prevalence and correlates of contraceptive use among female adolescents in Ghana

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a critical stage in the life course and evidence suggests that even though contraceptive use has been steadily increasing among women in Ghana over the past years, contraceptive prevalence and determinants among female adolescents is quite lacking. This paper examines the prevalence and correlates of contraceptive use among female adolescents in Ghana. METHODS: The paper used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Bivariate analysis was carried out to determine the contraceptive prevalence among female adolescents while logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the correlates of female adolescent contraceptive use. RESULTS: The study founded that female adolescent contraceptive use was significantly determined by age of adolescent, education, work status, knowledge of ovulatory cycle, visit of health facility and marital status. CONCLUSIONS: This has implications for adolescent sexual and reproductive health programmes in Ghana. It is therefore essential to intensify girl child education and strengthen the provision of family planning information and services for female adolescents in the country.