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Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes

(1) Background: Nearly one out of ten Ghanaian female adolescents aged 15–19 has experienced childbearing in urban settlements compared to twice this number in the rural populations due to unintended pregnancies. This study assessed the linkages between knowledge, attitudes, and use of contraceptive...

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Autores principales: Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Hagan, John Elvis, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, Hormenu, Thomas, Otoo, John Ekow, Budu, Eugene, Schack, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33802398
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030272
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author Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Hagan, John Elvis
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Hormenu, Thomas
Otoo, John Ekow
Budu, Eugene
Schack, Thomas
author_facet Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Hagan, John Elvis
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Hormenu, Thomas
Otoo, John Ekow
Budu, Eugene
Schack, Thomas
author_sort Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: Nearly one out of ten Ghanaian female adolescents aged 15–19 has experienced childbearing in urban settlements compared to twice this number in the rural populations due to unintended pregnancies. This study assessed the linkages between knowledge, attitudes, and use of contraceptives and adolescent pregnancy in one of the highly affected Municipalities (i.e., Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abrem [KEEA]) in Ghana. (2) Methods: Employing a facility-based sampling method, 378 female adolescents aged 15–19 were selected. Unadjusted odds ratio (uOR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) at 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p-values were used for significant variables at p < 0.05. (3) Results: Pregnant adolescents were 2 times more likely to indicate that the procedure of procuring contraceptives is quite uncomfortable (aOR = 2.42, 95% CI = [1.29–4.55]; p = 0.006). Also, pregnant adolescents were 5 times more likely to have ever used traditional contraceptive methods than their non-pregnant counterparts (aOR = 5.02, 95% CI = [2.60–9.71]; p < 0.001). On the contrary, pregnant adolescents had lower odds of indicating that contraceptives are for only married people (aOR = 0.38, 95% CI = [0.20–0.70]; p = 0.002) and that it feels bad to receive contraceptive information from parents and relatives than non-pregnant adolescents (aOR = 0.42, 95% CI = [0.24–0.74]; p = 0.003). Pregnant adolescents were less likely to use modern contraceptives than their non-pregnant adolescents (aOR = 0.18, 95% CI = [0.11–0.31]; p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: The findings indicate that female adolescents’ use of traditional contraceptives is associated with the risk of pregnancy in KEEA Municipality within the Central Region of Ghana. However, adolescents who had the perception that contraceptives are for married people and those who used modern contraceptives were less likely to get pregnant. Government and non-governmental organizations in Ghana should implement educational policies and programmes aimed at educating sexually-active female adolescents on modern contraceptives and the need to use them to prevent pregnancies. The basis for such policies and programmes should be based on evidence that compared to traditional contraceptives, modern contraceptives are more effective. In addition, there is the need to provide accurate information regarding the use of contraceptives to adolescents that will help change their attitudes towards the use of contraceptives.
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spelling pubmed-80017202021-03-28 Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Hagan, John Elvis Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Hormenu, Thomas Otoo, John Ekow Budu, Eugene Schack, Thomas Healthcare (Basel) Article (1) Background: Nearly one out of ten Ghanaian female adolescents aged 15–19 has experienced childbearing in urban settlements compared to twice this number in the rural populations due to unintended pregnancies. This study assessed the linkages between knowledge, attitudes, and use of contraceptives and adolescent pregnancy in one of the highly affected Municipalities (i.e., Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abrem [KEEA]) in Ghana. (2) Methods: Employing a facility-based sampling method, 378 female adolescents aged 15–19 were selected. Unadjusted odds ratio (uOR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) at 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p-values were used for significant variables at p < 0.05. (3) Results: Pregnant adolescents were 2 times more likely to indicate that the procedure of procuring contraceptives is quite uncomfortable (aOR = 2.42, 95% CI = [1.29–4.55]; p = 0.006). Also, pregnant adolescents were 5 times more likely to have ever used traditional contraceptive methods than their non-pregnant counterparts (aOR = 5.02, 95% CI = [2.60–9.71]; p < 0.001). On the contrary, pregnant adolescents had lower odds of indicating that contraceptives are for only married people (aOR = 0.38, 95% CI = [0.20–0.70]; p = 0.002) and that it feels bad to receive contraceptive information from parents and relatives than non-pregnant adolescents (aOR = 0.42, 95% CI = [0.24–0.74]; p = 0.003). Pregnant adolescents were less likely to use modern contraceptives than their non-pregnant adolescents (aOR = 0.18, 95% CI = [0.11–0.31]; p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: The findings indicate that female adolescents’ use of traditional contraceptives is associated with the risk of pregnancy in KEEA Municipality within the Central Region of Ghana. However, adolescents who had the perception that contraceptives are for married people and those who used modern contraceptives were less likely to get pregnant. Government and non-governmental organizations in Ghana should implement educational policies and programmes aimed at educating sexually-active female adolescents on modern contraceptives and the need to use them to prevent pregnancies. The basis for such policies and programmes should be based on evidence that compared to traditional contraceptives, modern contraceptives are more effective. In addition, there is the need to provide accurate information regarding the use of contraceptives to adolescents that will help change their attitudes towards the use of contraceptives. MDPI 2021-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8001720/ /pubmed/33802398 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030272 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku
Hagan, John Elvis
Seidu, Abdul-Aziz
Hormenu, Thomas
Otoo, John Ekow
Budu, Eugene
Schack, Thomas
Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title_full Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title_fullStr Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title_full_unstemmed Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title_short Linking Female Adolescents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Use of Contraceptives to Adolescent Pregnancy in Ghana: A Baseline Data for Developing Sexuality Education Programmes
title_sort linking female adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes and use of contraceptives to adolescent pregnancy in ghana: a baseline data for developing sexuality education programmes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33802398
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030272
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