Risk Factors for Adolescent Pregnancy in the New Normal Era of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case-Control Study

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Population Study and Health Promotion, Public Health Faculty, Universitas Airlangga, Dr. Ir. H. Soekarno Street, Mulyorejo, Surabaya City, East Java, 60115, Indonesia
² Department of Health Policy and Administration, Public Health Faculty, Universitas Airlangga, Dr. Ir. H. Soekarno Street, Mulyorejo, Surabaya City, East Java, 60115, Indonesia
³ Faculty of Public Health University of North Sumatera Medan, Indonesia
⁴ Faculty of public and environmental health, Bahri University, Khartoum, Sudan

^* Corresponding author: santi-m@fkm.unair.ac.id

Abstract

Cases of early marriage are reported to have increased during the pandemic due to stressed teenagers with the pressure of online learning. The increase in this number plays a role in increasing the risk of teenage pregnancy. This study aimed to analyse the risk factors for adolescent pregnancies during the new normal era of the COVID-19 pandemic. A case-control design using a simple random sampling technique involved 40 pregnant adolescents aged 15-19 years and 80 non-pregnant adolescents during the online learning period (July 2021 to January 2022) in Ngawi Regency, Indonesia. Data obtained from interviews were analysed to find Odds Ratio (OR) with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Results showed factors associated with adolescent pregnancies were underpaid parental income (OR 4.00, 95%CI 1.64–9.74), authoritarian and permissive parenting (OR 12.75, 95%CI 4.71–34.46), lack of exposure to media about reproductive health (OR 7.91, 95%CI 3.32–18.84), risky dating behaviour (OR 37.09, 95%CI 4.86–283.25), and smoking habit (OR 5.57, 95%CI 1.03–30.12). Preventing adolescent pregnancies could be done through public health education focusing on adolescent communities, parent-child discussion on reproductive health, as well as exposure to educative media related to reproductive health and the impacts of juvenile delinquency.