Abstract
BackgroundAdolescence is a critical stage in the life course and evidence suggests that even though contraceptive use has been steadily increasing among women in Ghana over the past years, contraceptive prevalence and determinants among female adolescents is quite lacking. This paper examines the prevalence and correlates of contraceptive use among female adolescents in Ghana.MethodsThe paper used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Bivariate analysis was carried out to determine the contraceptive prevalence among female adolescents while logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the correlates of female adolescent contraceptive use.ResultsThe study founded that female adolescent contraceptive use was significantly determined by age of adolescent, education, work status, knowledge of ovulatory cycle, visit of health facility and marital status.ConclusionsThis has implications for adolescent sexual and reproductive health programmes in Ghana. It is therefore essential to intensify girl child education and strengthen the provision of family planning information and services for female adolescents in the country.
Highlights
Adolescence is a critical stage in the life course and evidence suggests that even though contraceptive use has been steadily increasing among women in Ghana over the past years, contraceptive prevalence and determinants among female adolescents is quite lacking
Planning is relevant to Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 of improving maternal health, which calls for the reduction of maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and the achievement of universal access to reproductive health by 2015
In terms of contraceptive prevalence, the highest was found among female adolescents with secondary or higher education (19.9 %) while the lowest was among those without formal education (3.5 %)
Summary
Adolescence is a critical stage in the life course and evidence suggests that even though contraceptive use has been steadily increasing among women in Ghana over the past years, contraceptive prevalence and determinants among female adolescents is quite lacking. In spite of continuous global investments in adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) programmes, constraints such as limited knowledge and lack of access to resources as well as services still exist in effectively meeting the ASRH information and service needs of adolescents. These constraints are evident in sub-Saharan Africa where unintended pregnancies and adolescent childbearing continue to be a burden [2,3,4]. It has been estimated that about one-third of maternal deaths and close to one-tenth of child mortality globally
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