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Título
Adolescent contraceptive use and its effects on fertility
Autor(es)
Palabras clave
Adolescent fertility
Economics
Demography
Contraceptive use
Early marriage
Fecha de publicación
2018
Editor
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock. Alemania)
Citación
Sánchez-Páez, D.A. Ortega, J.A. (2018). Adolescent contraceptive use and its effect on fertility. Demographic Research 38(45), 1359–1388
Resumen
[EN]BACKGROUND: Adolescent reproductive health is part of internationally agreed development goals. Unmarried
adolescents are not commonly included in global monitoring of contraceptive use
despite the more severe consequences of unintended childbearing for them.
OBJECTIVE: We document levels and trends of contraceptive prevalence and demand for married and
sexually active unmarried adolescent women aged 15–19 in Latin America and sub-
Saharan Africa. We estimate the effect of adolescent contraceptive use and marital status
on fertility and the impact of meeting current demand.
METHODS: We propose a fertility model informed by the proximate determinants framework separating
adolescents by marital status. Linear Mixed Model estimates are based on aggregate
data from 120 DHS surveys for 34 developing countries.
RESULTS: Increasing contraceptive prevalence has already reduced adolescent fertility by 6.8% in
Latin America and 4.1% in sub-Saharan Africa. Meeting the total demand for contraceptives
of unmarried adolescents would lead to an additional decrease in fertility of 8.9%
and 17.4% respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Contraceptive demand and prevalence are generally higher for sexually active unmarried
adolescent women than for those married. Increasing prevalence has already had an impact
in declining fertility, but there is a potentially larger effect if high levels of unmet
need are eliminated, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Such reduction would have a
significant impact on adolescent health. CONTRIBUTION : We provide evidence of the importance of contraceptive use of unmarried sexually active
adolescent women in explaining trends in adolescent fertility. We estimate the potential
effect of meeting the contraceptive needs of married and unmarried adolescents on
unintended childbearing.
URI
ISSN
1435-9871
DOI
10.4054/DemRes.2018.38.45
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