Prevalence and factors associated with contraceptive use among sexually active adolescent girls in 25 sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

Introduction Various countries in sub-Saharan Africa have taken divergent steps toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal’s target of universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services by 2030, particularly among sexually active adolescent girls who are at risk of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. However, because contraceptive use among sexually active adolescents remains unexplored in sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers intended to examine the prevalence and factors associated with contraceptive use among adolescent girls who had been sexually active in the previous four weeks. Materials and methods Cross-sectional data from the most recent demographic and health surveys of 25 sub-Saharan African countries on 16,442 sexually active adolescent girls were analyzed. In the analyses, descriptive statistics and multivariate binary logistic regression were used. Analyses were statistically significant at p<0.05. Results The overall prevalence of contraceptive use was 25.4%. Chad had the lowest prevalence (4%), while Namibia had the highest (60.5%). Over 90% of the countries studied had less than 50% contraceptive use among sexually active adolescent girls. Adolescent girls withhigher education were eight times more likely than those with no formal education to use contraception (aOR = 7.97, 95% Cl = 6.26-9.45). When compared to single adolescent girls, married adolescent girls were 66% less likely to use contraceptives (aOR = 0.34, 95% Cl = 0.31-0.36). Adolescent girls with two or more children were seven times more likely than those without a child to use contraceptives (aOR = 6.91, 95% Cl = 5.58-8.56). Conclusion It is established that there exists a low prevalence of contraceptive use among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa. As countries in the sub-region strive for universal access to reproductive health services, it is critical for the governments and civil societies in countries with low contraceptive use to strengthen mass education on the use of contraception among sexually active adolescents, with special emphasis on the less educated, married, and adolescent girls from poor households.