Prevalence of adolescent deliveries and its complications in Cameroon: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Adolescent deliveries (10–19 years) carry a high risk of adverse outcomes due to the biological and physiological immaturity of these mothers. They pose a significant health burden in Cameroon, as it is reported that a high proportion of women attending delivery services are teenagers. We therefore sought to systematically assess the prevalence of adolescent deliveries in the country and its maternal and neonatal outcomes. METHODS: This was a systematic review of literature and a meta-analysis. We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL and Global Health online databases for all studies that reported the proportion of adolescent women who presented for delivery in health facilities in Cameroon. All observational studies published up to 10th July 2019, were included. RESULTS: A total of 47 articles were identified by the search. After removal of duplicates and screening of the titles and abstracts, 11 eligible studies were retained with ten articles meeting the inclusion criteria. These ten studies finally retained reported on nine different cohorts with a total of 99,653 women. The pooled prevalence of adolescent deliveries from the nine cohorts in Cameroon was 14.4% (95% CI: 10.7–18.6%), the prevalence for early adolescent deliveries was 2.8% (95% CI: 0.4–7.2%), meanwhile that for late adolescent deliveries was 12.5% (95% CI: 6.7–19.8%). The prevalence of adolescent deliveries in urban areas – 13.1% (95% CI: 7.8–19.6%) was similar to that in semi-urban areas– 14.1% (95% CI: 6.7–23.5%). Adolescents were more likely than adults (> 19 years) to have low birth weight babies (OR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.6, 2.1); babies born with asphyxia (OR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.1); babies born before term (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.9) and babies who die in the neonatal period (OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.2, 3.8). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of adolescent deliveries in Cameroon is high. Implementation of adolescent-friendly policies is necessary to reduce the proportion of adolescents who become pregnant in Cameroon.