Adolescent pregnancy: Thailand's national agenda.

BACKGROUND

Unintended pregnancy during adolescence can have profound effects on adolescents, their parents and family, the child and the country's developing population.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the adolescent pregnancy situation in Thailand in order to provide data and suggestions for refining the nation's medical curricula and enhancing health services for adolescents.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

National data from Thailand's 3 major health care systems, regarding; adolescent pregnancy complications, deliveries, outcomes and deaths in the 2010 fiscal year were analyzed and compared to women 20-34 years of age.

RESULTS

There were 80,523 adolescent pregnancies, comprising 25.9% of all pregnancies. The pregnancy rate for 15-19 year-olds was 33.4 per 1,000 and abortion was the outcome in 14.4%, (18.0% of all abortions). The adolescent birth rate was 28.7 in women 15-19 years of age-on average, there were 188.8 adolescent deliveries per day. Adolescents gave birth to 37.2% of all preterm infants: the preterm birth rate was significantly greater than in women in the optimum reproductive age. Most deliveries were spontaneous vertex deliveries with lower complications and mortality rates than for women in the optimum reproductive age.

CONCLUSION

Unintended pregnancy can have profound effects on adolescent parents, their parents and families, the child and the country's developing population. It should, therefore, be considered a major public health problem that warrants immediate intervention at the national level.