title: Teenage pregnancies in the Rewa medical sub-division, Fiji.
abstract: To assess the magnitude of teenage pregnancies in the Rewa Medical Sub-division as well as the socio-demographic characteristics of the affected teenagers so as to provide a baseline for tackling the problem. The study was a 5 year retrospective study (1994-1998) of the medical records of the Nausori Maternity Unit, the only unit for these purposes in the entire Subdivision. Pregnancies that were intentionally terminated were not included, as no such data was available from these our public health services. An average of 11.1% of the 5319 obstetric patients attended to at the centre for the 5 years were teenagers. Their age range was 13 to 19 years. Proportionately more Fijians had such teenage pregnancies than their Indo-Fijian counterparts. The same was true of their being unmarried or being VDRL positive. A larger percentage of the Indian teenagers received assisted deliveries than the Fijians, but this was not statistically significant, being 6% and 4% respectively. Low birth weight was 19% among these teenagers (compared with 5.9% overall). Efforts are needed in the area of family life education to improve on aspects of teenage pregnancies. Since this is an area of education that has many conflicting values in the modern world, it is advocated that parents as well as many agencies as possible should be targets as well as join in this task in order meet the needs as due. Such education should cover and respect all the values concerned.
authors.affiliation: Nausori Health Centre, Nausori.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lal
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Asuzu
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Salusalu
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005367:Fiji / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies