Abstract
Despite India’s remarkable economic progress, teenage pregnancy continues to pose significant public health challenges, with adverse implications for both maternal and child health outcomes. Socioeconomic inequalities play a crucial role in shaping the landscape of teenage pregnancy, given India’s diverse demographic and regional disparities in education, healthcare access, and women’s empowerment. This study aims to address a notable gap in the existing literature by assessing the extent of inequality in teenage pregnancy in India, focusing on socioeconomic determinants often overlooked in previous research. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design, utilizing data from the third (NFHS-3 (2005–06)) and fifth (NFHS-5 (2019–21)) rounds of the Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Concentration curves and decomposition methods were employed to analyze the data, allowing for an evaluation of the degree of inequality based on various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the sample. The analysis revealed significant disparities in adolescent pregnancy rates, particularly evident in rural-urban divides and disparities between socio-economic strata. Factors such as wealth quintiles, educational attainment, and exposure to mass media emerged as key contributors to the widening gap between disadvantaged and affluent populations. Our findings underscore the urgent need for a comprehensive policy approach to address the dual challenge of reducing teenage pregnancies and mitigating socioeconomic inequalities. Such an approach should incorporate cultural and health-promoting components to effectively tackle the underlying determinants of teenage pregnancy and promote equitable maternal and child health outcomes in India.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data set used in this study available in the public domain https://dhsprogram.com/data/dataset/India_Standard-DHS_2020.cfm?flag=1.
Abbreviations
- CC:
-
Concentration curves
- NFHS:
-
National Family Health Survey
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- SC:
-
Scheduled caste
- ST:
-
Scheduled tribe
- OBC:
-
Other backward caste
References
Baxter MAJ, Dundas MR, Popham F, Craig P (2021) How effective was England’s teenage pregnancy strategy? A comparative analysis of high-income countries. Soc Sci Med 270:113685
Beldon A, Crozier S (2005) Health promotion in pregnancy: the role of the midwife. J R Soc Promot Health 125(5):216–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/146642400512500513
Bhan N (2019) Preventing teenage pregnancy in India to end the cycle of undernutrition. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 3(7):439–440
Biswas DK, Bhunia R, Mukherjee A (n.d.) High prevalence of abortion among primigravida and teen aged girls in the district of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal; India. Indian J Public Health Res Dev 7(1):74–79
Caffe S, Plesons M, Camacho AV, Brumana L, Abdool SN, Huaynoca S, Mayall K, Menard-Freeman L, de Francisco Serpa LA, Gomez Ponce de Leon R, Chandra-Mouli V (2017) Looking back and moving forward: can we accelerate progress on adolescent pregnancy in the Americas? Reproductive Health 14(1):83. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-017-0345-y
Deogaonkar M (2004) Socio-economic inequality and its effect on healthcare delivery in India: inequality and healthcare. Electron J Sociol 11
Espinel-Flores V, Gotsens M, Puig-Barrachina V, León-Gómez BB, Peralta A, Pérez G (2020) Trends in teenage motherhood in Ecuador: challenges and inequalities. Int J Public Health 65(9):1647–1655. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01517-w
Ghosh J (2004) Income inequality in India. https://countercurrents.org/eco-ghosh170204.htm
Goonewardene IMR, Deeyagaha Waduge RPK (2005) Adverse effects of teenage pregnancy. Ceylon Med J 50(3):116–120. https://doi.org/10.4038/cmj.v50i3.1428
IIPS and ICF (2021) National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21: India. IIPS
Kakwani N, Wagstaff A, Van Doorslaer E (1997) Socioeconomic inequalities in health: measurement, computation, and statistical inference. J Econom 77(1):87–103
Kassa GM, Arowojolu AO, Odukogbe AA, Yalew AW (2018) Prevalence and determinants of adolescent pregnancy in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Reproduct Health 15(1):195. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0640-2
Loaiza E, Liang M (2013) Adolescent pregnancy: a review of the evidence. UNFPA
Mahavarkar SH, Madhu CK, Mule VD (2008) A comparative study of teenage pregnancy. J Obstet Gynaecol 28(6):604–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443610802281831
Mayor S (2004) Pregnancy and childbirth are leading causes of death in teenage girls in developing countries. BMJ
Mukhopadhyay P, Chaudhuri RN, Paul B (2010) Hospital-based perinatal outcomes and complications in teenage pregnancy in India. J Health Popul Nutr 28(5):494–500. https://doi.org/10.3329/jhpn.v28i5.6158
Pratinidhi A, Shrotri A, Shah U (1990) Risk of teen-age pregnancy in a rural community of India. Indian J Matern Child Health 1(4):134–138
Sagili H, Pramya N, Prabhu K, Mascarenhas M, Reddi Rani P (2012) Are teenage pregnancies at high risk? A comparison study in a developing country. Arch Gynecol Obstetrics 285(3):573–577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-011-1987-6
Sarkar S, Mehta BS (2010) Income inequality in India: pre-and post-reform periods. Econ Political Weekly 45–55
Talawar S, Venkatesh G (2013) Outcome of teenage pregnancy. IOSR J Dental Med Sci 6(6):81–83
Thekkekkara T, Veenu J (2009) Teenage pregnancy: a comparative study of the outcome and complications. J Ind Med Assoc 107:34–35, 40
United Nations Children’s Fund (2023) Ending child marriage: a profile of progress in India, 2023 update. https://data.unicef.org/resources/ending-child-marriage-a-profile-of-progress-in-india-2023
van der Klis KAM, Westenberg L, Chan A, Dekker G, Keane RJ (2002) Health inequalities: teenage pregnancy: trends, characteristics and outcomes in South Australia and Australia. Aust N Z J Public Health 26(2):125–131
Wado YD, Sully EA, Mumah JN (2019) Pregnancy and early motherhood among adolescents in five East African countries: a multi-level analysis of risk and protective factors. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 19(1):1–11
Wagstaff A, O’Donnell O, Van Doorslaer E, Lindelow M (2007) Analyzing health equity using household survey data: a guide to techniques and their implementation. World Bank Publications
Webb RT, Marshall CE, Abel KM (2011) Teenage motherhood and risk of premature death: long-term follow-up in the ONS longitudinal study. Psychol Med 41(9):1867–1877
White G, Ruther M, Kahn J (2016) Educational inequality in India: an analysis of gender differences in reading and mathematics. University of Maryland College Park, USA
WHO (2014) Adolescent pregnancy. World Health Organization, Geneva
Yakubu I, Salisu WJ (2018) Determinants of adolescent pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review. Reproduct Health 15(1):15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0460-4
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program for providing free access to the original data used in this study.
Funding
This research received no specific grants from any funding agency, commercial entity, or not-for-profit organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
M.D.: Conceptualization; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Supervision; Writing—original draft; Writing—review and editing. A.A.: Conceptualization; Writing—review and editing. P.B.: Writing—original draft; Writing—review and editing. D.K.B.: Writing—original draft; Writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the final version of manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
This study utilized the NFHS-3 and NFHS-5, publicly available datasets with no identifiable information on the survey participants. These datasets can be downloaded from the Demographic and Health Surveys website. Ethical approval for the original study was obtained from the IIPS Ethical Review Board. Additionally, the ICF International Review Board (IRB) looked over the survey and gave ethical approval.
Informed consent
The respondents provided signed consent after being fully informed about the survey’s purpose and procedures.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Das, M., Anand, A., Barman, P. et al. Exploring the relationship between socioeconomic status and teenage pregnancy in India: a review on National Family Health Survey. SN Soc Sci 4, 89 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00889-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00889-7