Abstract

Early pregnancy in school settings is a social, economic and health phenomenon that can hamper the development of countries. This study aims to determine the factors associated with this phenomenon in the health district of Lokossa-Athiémé in southwestern Benin in 2018. The study employed a case-control method. The participants were secondary school girls aged 10 to 19 at the time of the study, enrolled in a public secondary school in the health district of Lokossa-Athiémé and having contracted a pregnancy during school year 2017-2018 In each case, we set three samples selected by simple random choice among girls aged 10 to 19 who had never contracted a pregnancy in the same district, the same secondary school and the same year of study. Data collection was carried out by interviewer-respondent using a questionnaire in accordance with ethical principles. The factors associated with early pregnancies were determined using a multiple conditional logistic regression model at 5% threshold. The average age of case-controls was 17.86 ± 1.34 years and that of participants was 16.75 ± 1.56 years. The factors associated with school-based pregnancies were age greater than 15 years (OR = 6.54; p = 0.045), the existence of an income source other than parents’ (OR = 9.43; p = 0.001), insufficient parental control (OR = 5.83; p = 0.011), low self-esteem (OR = 4.93; p = 0.011) and lack of family sex education (OR = 3.04; p = 0.039). The current study reveals the importance of family circle in controlling the problem of pregnancies in school settings.

Keywords: Early pregnancy, school settings, associated factors, Lokossa-Athiémé, Benin.