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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Mohammad Rasheduzzaman Shah, Dr¹, Nizam Uddin Ahmed², and Shahana Nazneen Sayeed, Dr¹. (1) Health, Population and Nutrition Sector, Save the Children - USA, Road # 91, House # 1A(2), Gulshan - 2, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh, +880-2-8828081-133, rasheds@savechildren.org, (2) Health, Population and Nutrition Sector, Save the Children USA, Bangladesh Field Office, Director, House 1A (2), Road 91, Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

Background/ Purpose : Globally health and developmental statistics have sufficiently demonstrated that adolescents are at increased risk for a wide variety of reproductive health issues. And thereby, community based interventions to improve adolescent's reproductive and sexual health behavior and practice are critically important, leading to ensuring adolescents' rights to access necessary maternal and child health services in Bangladesh. Methodology : Among 1512 randomly sampled adolescents (10 - 19 years) to assess their reproductive health knowledge and practice. Out of this large sample, we explored the potential risks of teenage pregnancy among 276 teenaged (13-19 years) ever married female respondents. Univariate analysis and cross-tabulation was done to make inferences from data. Results : Teen respondent females were found married in their early teens : Mean („b SD) age at marriage was reportedly 14.7 („b 1.4) years. More than half (56.2%) of them were found ever been pregnant and approximately 17% pregnancy loss among these teen pregnancies had been estimated from the study result. Mean age at first child delivery was found 15.6 years and 22.5% respondent teens have had delivered last child within last 12 months. Only 66% of pregnant teens did make any visit either to any health care service center or any health care service provider. And almost 95% deliveries were conducted at home. Conclusion : These findings reveal critical value to ensure adolescent's sexual and reproductive health rights among vulnerable groups like Teenagers whom should have adequate focus especially during pregnancy and child birth.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants attending the session would be able to recognize the “rights” issue in health care for teen pregnancies in Bangladesh and also to internalize the scopes of rights-based programming for adolescents’ reproductive and sexual health in developing country setting, like Bangladesh.

Keywords: Teen Pregnancy, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered