Effects of some social factors upon pregnancy in adolescent women

I. Blidaru (1), M. Roman (2), I. Caighera (2), R. Pleca (2)

(1) -4th Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, “Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy;

(2) -Family Planning Unit, “Cuza-Voda” Maternity Hospital, Iasi, Romania.

Objectives. Pregnancy is a particular situation in the life of a teenager woman. This study aims to evaluate the influence of some social aspects on teenage women as determinant for their respective decisions of maintaining pregnancy, seeking abortion or using a contraceptive method by comparing adolescents within different social categories.

Materials and methods. The study was carried out in the obstetric departments and Family Planning Unit from “Cuza Voda” Maternity Hospital, Iasi, Romania, over a period of eight months. It included a group of 90 adolescents, aged between 14 and 19, compounded of 30 who had delivered, 30 who were preparing to have an early termination of pregnancy and 30 who were already using contraceptive methods. An interview guide followed by a score evaluation was used in all cases, as well as their statistical analysis using Pearson Chi square.

Results. This study has assessed certain main social features in the form of: social environment, family condition, marital status, educational level, socio-economic conditions, employment and knowledge about contraceptive methods. Our results pointed out to the existing interdependence among the studied variables, except for the marital status aspect; the data was confirmed by means of statistical significance. Hence, the social profile of the teenage girl that delivered shows: rural location, unemployment, extreme poverty, poor or no education, no contraceptive knowledge, broken homes; the social profile of the teenage girl that seeks abortion showed: rural / urban location, average socio-economic level, poor / higher education, some contraceptive knowledge, complete families; the social profile of the teenage contraception user showed: urban area, higher socio-economic and educational level, contraception included, employee.

Conclusions. There is a tendency of decrease in the age range at the sexual debut and first delivery, mainly in the rural areas and among the extremely poor and uneducated people. Sexual and contraceptive education seems to request a vigorous improvement, mainly in the rural zones.