Edson Zangiacomi Martinez1, Daiane Leite da Roza2. 1. Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Electronic address: edson@fmrp.usp.br. 2. Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adolescent pregnancy is a multidimensional public health problem. It is known that every year in Brazil approximately 1.1 million adolescents become pregnant and around 20% of all newborns are born to teenage mothers. AIM: This ecological study describes the spatio-temporal patterns of the percentages of live births to adolescent mothers between the years of 2010 and 2016 in Brazil and their associations with human development indexes in the meso-regions where they reside. METHODS: Percentages of live births to adolescent mothers are the ratio between the number of live births to women aged 10-19 years old and total number of live births in each Brazilian meso-regions during the study period. A spatio-temporal Bayesian model was used to associate the percentages of live births to adolescent mothers with the human development index of each meso-region. Moran's index was used to measure the spatial autocorrelation between the meso-regions at an aggregate level, whereas the local indicator of spatial auto-correlation measured local correlation. FINDINGS: Percentages of live births to adolescent mothers for the whole country were 19.3% in 2010 and 17.5% in 2016. There is a heterogeneous spatial distribution pattern for these percentages, being the highest percentages in the North region (24.8% in 2016) and the lowest percentages in the Southeast region of the country (14.3% in 2016). The Bayesian model showed that meso-regions with lower human development index values have higher percentages of live births to adolescent mothers. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that adolescent pregnancy is deeply associated with environmental characteristics.
BACKGROUND: Adolescent pregnancy is a multidimensional public health problem. It is known that every year in Brazil approximately 1.1 million adolescents become pregnant and around 20% of all newborns are born to teenage mothers. AIM: This ecological study describes the spatio-temporal patterns of the percentages of live births to adolescent mothers between the years of 2010 and 2016 in Brazil and their associations with human development indexes in the meso-regions where they reside. METHODS: Percentages of live births to adolescent mothers are the ratio between the number of live births to women aged 10-19 years old and total number of live births in each Brazilian meso-regions during the study period. A spatio-temporal Bayesian model was used to associate the percentages of live births to adolescent mothers with the human development index of each meso-region. Moran's index was used to measure the spatial autocorrelation between the meso-regions at an aggregate level, whereas the local indicator of spatial auto-correlation measured local correlation. FINDINGS: Percentages of live births to adolescent mothers for the whole country were 19.3% in 2010 and 17.5% in 2016. There is a heterogeneous spatial distribution pattern for these percentages, being the highest percentages in the North region (24.8% in 2016) and the lowest percentages in the Southeast region of the country (14.3% in 2016). The Bayesian model showed that meso-regions with lower human development index values have higher percentages of live births to adolescent mothers. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that adolescent pregnancy is deeply associated with environmental characteristics.
Authors: Y Shang; T T Zhang; Z F Wang; B Z Ma; N Yang; Y T Qiu; B Li; Q Zhang; Q L Huang; K Y Liu Journal: Epidemiol Infect Date: 2022-01-12 Impact factor: 2.451