Socio-demographic factors for early marriage and early pregnancy – A community based study

Abstract

Background: Early marriage is one of key factor for dropping out the education and personal development, usually girls discontinue their schooling if a good marriage alliance is made. At the same time adolescent pregnancy remains a major contributing factor for maternal and child mortality. Objectives : To know the magnitude of early marriage and young pregnancy in the field practice area and to assess the socio-demographic factors of the participants. Materials and methods: Present study was community based cross-sectional study, no intervention was done. A total of 128 women were participated in the study. House to house survey was done for period of 6 months in both the rural field practice and urban field practice area. Results and Conclusion: The present study observed the significant difference between rural and urban area with response to age at marriage, duration of married life, number of children, knowledge about contraception, reason for early marriage and pregnancy. Traditional practices and family pressure, lack of contraception usage after marriage and after child birth was found to be reason for early marriage and young pregnancy in this region.