Spatiotemporal Patterns of Teenage Pregnancy in Nigeria: Evidence from the 2008, 2013 and 2018 NDHS

Abstract

This study examines the spatiotemporal patterns of Teenage Pregnancy (TP) disaggregated by location and key variables based on the 2008, 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys using inferential statistics and geospatial techniques. TP rates fell in most areas over time especially between the 2013 and 2018 surveys. The socioeconomically disadvantaged Northern states had the highest TP rates but achieved the largest reductions over time while the Southern states had relatively lower TP rates but mainly experienced an increase or much smaller reduction over time. Persistent spatial clustering of TP and temporal changes in TP indicates geographical location had a significant impact on the occurrence of TP across Nigeria as well as on temporal changes in TP in individual states. TP rates also varied significantly over time by educational level, Wealth Index, marital status and ethnicity. The risk of TP remains high especially in Abuja, Delta, Kogi and Edo states where TP rates consistently increased over time and amongst teenage women that are poor, married/living together, widowed/divorced and illiterate. Findings suggest that designing and adopting policies/programs that take into consideration the spatiotemporal pattern and subgroup disparities in TP is fundamental to achieving more significant reductions in TP in Nigeria.

Keywords:

• Teenage pregnancy
• spatial patterns
• temporal changes
• Moran’s index
• NDHS
• Nigeria

Acknowledgement

The Author is grateful to ICF International, USA for providing access to the 2008, 2013 and 2018 Demographic and Health Survey data for Nigeria.

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical approval was granted for the secondary analysis of existing demographic and health survey data after the removal of all identifying information of the respondents by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the ICF Macro at Calverton, USA in conjunction with the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC) of the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria.

Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest. No funding was received for this research.