Unintended Pregnancies and Contraceptive Use among Female Youth in Uganda from 2014 to 2024. What Is the Progress?

Simon Peter P. S. Kibira, Makerere University School of Public Health
Mary Nakafeero, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University
Ronald Ssenyonga, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University
Fredrick Makumbi, Makerere University

Unintended pregnancies among youth are a challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper assesses the prevalence of unintended pregnancy, factors associated, and contraceptive use following unintended pregnancy among female youth in 2014, 2019 and 2024 in Uganda, using data from performance monitoring for action (PMA) surveys. The available data - 2014 and 2019 - show 1,479 youth reported pregnancy; 780 in 2014 and 699 in 2019. We stratified youth by age; adolescent girls (15-19) and young women (20-24) and compared across surveys. Further comparison will be made with the 2024 survey- when data are available (data collection ongoing). The analyses are conducted with Stata version 15. For analyzed data (2014 and 2019 surveys), relative to 2014, there was a substantial reduction in 2019 in percent of youth reporting ever pregnant, 60% to 49%, and a decline in unintended pregnancy among adolescents, 52% to 42%. For contraception, there was increased use among those ever pregnant, 26% to 40%, higher in young women (30% to 47%) compared to adolescents (16% to 25%). The decline in unintended pregnancies is consistent with increased contraceptive use. Although we observed a significant decline in unintended pregnancy among adolescents, the proportion reporting unintended pregnancy remained high in 2019.

Keywords: Family Planning and Contraception, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Fertility

See extended abstract.