An analysis of the awareness of adolescent pregnancy among advanced level school children in selected girls' schools in western province, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Annual Health Bulletin (2019) stated, the teenage pregnancies (16-19 age) were increased from 13.8% (2018) to 17.1% (2019). Analyze effective methods for prevent adolescent pregnancy by determining the impacts of Peer Influence, Socio economic status, knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases and knowledge of safety measures of pregnancy towards awareness maternal healthcare education related to adolescent pregnancy were objectives of this ethically approved study. Adolescent girls (16-19 years) in Advance Level science classes [N1 = 34,328 (Colombo: 14,835, Gampaha: 11,882, Kalutara: 7,611)] of National girls schools [N2 = 72 (Colombo:37, Gampaha: 17, Kalutara: 18)] in Western Province are the aimed population. The Sample (Andreessen table; 5% margin error) was collected by validated questionnaire according to Proportionate Stratified Sampling Method [n1 = 378 (Colombo: 163, Gampaha: 131, Kalutara: 84); n2 = 4 (Colombo: 2, Gampaha: 1, Kalutara: 1)]. As per the results, most of participants were Sinhala, Buddhists, unmarried, unemployed and few had experiences of violence. And few participant’s mothers and siblings had adolescent pregnancies and few of them live with their single mothers. Students live in moderate to low socio-economy with moderate to high peer influence. and they had moderate to low knowledge of safety measures of pregnancy, moderate to high knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases and moderate to high awareness of healthcare education related to adolescent pregnancy. And there were significant positive impacts towards awareness of healthcare education related to adolescent pregnancy from knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases, knowledge of safety measures of pregnancy and peer influence. And there was no significant impact from socio-economic status to awareness of healthcare education related to adolescent pregnancy. The results were confirmed by the pilot study of adolescent pregnant ladies. Therefore, this study is certified that the awareness of healthcare education can be developed through knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases, knowledge of safety measures of pregnancy by the support of peer influence for prevent adolescent pregnancy from Sri Lanka.