Sociodemographic Determinants of Adolescent Childbirths in Ghana: Results from a nationwide survey
Abstract Objective: To investigate the sociodemographic determinants of adolescent childbearing in Ghana.Methods: This research studied reproductive-aged women who were systematically sampled in Ghana. Kaplan Meier and Cox proportional hazard regression with shared frailty were fitted on a nationwide population-based data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) to predict adolescent childbirth.Results: The analysis revealed that approximately 49% initiated childbirth during adolescence. This study found higher adolescent childbirth rates among women who were not working (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) =1.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07 to 1.29) and resided in rural areas (AHR =1.22; 95% CI = 1.09 to 1.37). In addition, poor women (AHR= 1.71; 95% CI = 1.49 to 1.95) and middle-class women (AHR=1.67; 95% CI = 1.48 to 1.88) had a higher likelihood of having adolescent birth compared to the rich. Lastly, secondary and higher educated women were 0.74 (95% CI= 0.67 to 0.82) and 0.10 (95% CI= 0.06 to 0.16) times less likely to have adolescent birth, respectively.Conclusions: This research revealed that adolescent childbearing was greatly influenced by socioeconomically disadvantaged background within the contexts of the women and the community in which they reside. This finding suggests the need to initiate and improve interventions that seek to reduce poverty among women and to promote and encourage adolescent girls to pursue secondary and higher education to help reduce unintended adolescent childbirths. Finally, adolescent girls should be empowered through counseling and education on reproductive and sexual health options and rights to ensure more informed decision-making about contraception.