Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
BMJ Open. 2022 Mar 9;12(3):e055021. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055021.
The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of adolescent motherhood among married adolescent girls and its associations with their partners' characteristics in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Population-based study.
54 285 ever married (or lived with a partner) adolescent girls (15-19 years old) were including in prevalence analysis. However, partner characteristics were assessed in a subsample of 24 433 adolescent girls who were married (or living with a partner) at the time of interview.
Data from the latest available Demographic and Health Survey round during 2010-2018 in 48 LMICs across different geographic regions.
The overall prevalence of adolescent motherhood was 73.98% (95% CI 70.96 to 78.10) among married adolescent girls in this study. In the pooled analysis, statistically significant and positive associations were observed between adolescent motherhood and partners' desire for more children (adjusted marginal effect (AME): 2.34, 95% CI 1.21 to 3.47) and spousal age gap (AME: 1.67, 95% CI 0.30 to 3.04 for three plus age gap). However, no statistically significant association was observed between adolescent motherhood and partners' education (AME: -0.36, 95% CI -1.77 to 1.05 for primary education) and partners' agricultural occupation (AME: 1.07, 95% CI -0.17 to 2.32). Overall, there was significant variation in the associations across countries; however, the positive associations persisted between adolescent motherhood and partners' desire for more children and spousal age gap in most of the studied countries.
Our findings may inform policymakers about the importance of incorporating partners of married adolescent girls into the existing birth control programmes to delay age at first birth among married adolescents in LMICs. More attention should be given to the married adolescent girls who have older partners, and efforts to discourage marriages with much older partners may have a secondary benefit of reducing adolescent motherhood in LMICs.
本研究旨在探讨中低收入国家（LMICs）中已婚青少年少女的未成年母亲比例及其与伴侣特征的关系。
基于人群的研究。
共有 54285 名曾有过婚姻（或与伴侣生活过）的少女（15-19 岁）被纳入流行率分析。然而，在接受访谈时已经结婚（或与伴侣生活在一起）的 24433 名少女中评估了伴侣的特征。
来自不同地理区域的 48 个 LMICs 在 2010 年至 2018 年期间的最新一轮人口与健康调查中获得的数据。
在这项研究中，已婚少女的未成年母亲总体流行率为 73.98%（95%CI 70.96 至 78.10）。在汇总分析中，未成年母亲与伴侣希望有更多孩子（调整后的边际效应（AME）：2.34，95%CI 1.21 至 3.47）和配偶年龄差距（AME：1.67，95%CI 0.30 至 3.04 岁）之间存在统计学上显著和正相关。然而，未成年母亲与伴侣教育（AME：小学教育为-0.36，95%CI-1.77 至 1.05）和伴侣农业职业（AME：1.07，95%CI-0.17 至 2.32）之间没有统计学上显著的关联。总体而言，这些关联在国家之间存在显著差异；然而，在大多数研究国家中，未成年母亲与伴侣对更多孩子的渴望以及配偶年龄差距之间的正相关仍然存在。
我们的研究结果可能为决策者提供信息，即需要将已婚少女的伴侣纳入现有的节育方案中，以延缓 LMICs 中已婚青少年的首次生育年龄。应该更加关注与年长伴侣结婚的少女，并努力阻止与年长伴侣结婚可能会对减少 LMICs 中的未成年母亲产生次要益处。
