Prevalence of Adolescent Pregnancy in Ganye Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy is formally defined as a pregnancy in a young woman who has not reached her 20th birthday when the pregnancy ends, regardless of whether the woman is married or is legally an adult. The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Ganye local government area, Adamawa state were assessed. This was linked with tribal group and religion. Structured and validated questionnaires were used to obtain information on the socio-economic characteristics, age, tribes as well as religion of the subjects. The results of the survey show that about 51% of the subjects had adolescent pregnancy, out of which 42% were Muslims, 9% Christians. The study also showed that Hausa tribe has the highest incidence of adolescent pregnancy with 84.61% followed by the Fulani tribe with 63.15% and then Chamba tribe with 43.54%. The result also revealed that most of the women were jobless, about 60% were house-wives. Reproductive health education is necessary in health centres, churches, mosque and different villages in the local government to help teach the  villagers, religious groups, traditional rulers and village heads the dangers inherent in adolescent pregnancy.

Keywords: Prevalence, Adolescent, Pregnancy, Women