Determinants of Adolescent Pregnancy in Uganda, UDHS 2000-01-2016

Catherine Mbabazi, National Population Council (NPC)-Uganda/Takemi Fellow

Adolescent pregnancy declined from 31% in 2000-01 to 25% in 2006 and has since stalled at 25% from 2006 to 2016. The paper identifies factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in Uganda from 2000-01 to 2016. We used pooled data of 9,937 females aged 15-19 from four waves (2000-01, 2006, 2011, and 2016) of the Ugandan Demographic and Health Survey to estimate factors associated with adolescent pregnancy Logistic regression is used to establish the factors associated with adolescent pregnancy, sexual debut and child marriage Results: child marriage, early sexual debut (very young adolescence <14 years); Age of the respondent; education, wealth index and regional variations are significantly associated with adolescent pregnancy. Conclusions The decline in adolescent pregnancy between 2000-01 and 2006 was mainly driven by positive change in early marriage and sexual debut as well as years of school, which stagnated after 2006. From 2006 to 2016, all the variables were worse off.