Untangling the Evidence: A review of teenage pregnancy research and statistics in South Africa

Teen pregnancy and early childbirth are concerning public health problems that deserve unbiased attention from health professionals, policy makers, educators, and community members (P.T. Mngadi et al., 2002). Reddy et al., (2010) state, “health-risk behaviors once established in adolescence, often persist into adulthood and may have serious consequences such as… psycho-social problems, unwanted pregnancies and infectious diseases, such as sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS,” (Reddy et al., 2010). To better understand the problems associated with teen pregnancy in South Africa, it is imperative to have good data with which to study the prevalence and detriments. There are limited statistics on teenage pregnancy in South Africa (Panday, Makiwane, Ranchod, & Letsoala, 2009), and among the available data, there are inconsistencies concerning the teenage fertility rate. Fertility rates refer to the number of live births per 1,000 women and do not include pregnancies that result in stillbirth, miscarriage or termination. The inconsistencies in available data may be attributed to variations in the studies that have been conducted, such as different study aims, methodologies, and populations. Given that reducing teenage pregnancy in the country is a priority, examining the variations in the data is critical for understanding the current situation, formulating recommendations for interventions and future attempts to measure progress.

The purpose of this review is to compare and contrast the design and objective(s) of recent studies that present data on teenage pregnancy to highlight the strengths and limitations of each report in terms of its data on teenage pregnancy, and to provide guidance on how the studies may or may not be compared to determine trends over time.