Analysis of births, abortions and maternal mortality in adolescents in Ecuador from 2013 to 2016

Publication date: Available online 4 July 2019Source: International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent MedicineAuthor(s): María Luciana Armijos Acurio, Mónica García, Ruth Jimbo Sotomayor, Xavier Sanchez, Susana GuijarroAbstractIntroductionAdolescent pregnancy is associated to school desertion, violence, termination of pregnancy under suboptimal conditions, obstetric complications and other consequences that can put the woman’s quality of life at risk and of those that surround her (2). The purpose of this study is to describe the situation and tendencies of adolescent pregnancies, abortions and maternal deaths between 2013 and 2016 in Ecuador.MethodsThis cross-sectional study uses secondary data from national Ecuadorian vital statistics reports of adolescents between 10 and 19 years old. The data sources used register all the births, deaths and hospital discharges in the country at both public and private health establishments. We performed a descriptive analysis of qualitative and quantitative variables.ResultsEcuador has approximately 1.5 million female adolescents that gave birth to 256,561 newborns between 2013 and 2016, resulting in an average annual birth rate in early adolescence of 13.9 live births per 1000 and in late adolescence of 86.6 per 1000 live births.The number of registered abortions among adolescents between 2013-2016 was of 19,214. The estimated annual abortion rate in late stage adolescents is 6.3 abortions per 1000 women between 15 and 19. The es...
Source: International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine - Category: Pediatrics Source Type: research