Risk factors associated with unwanted pregnancy in female medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Most pregnancies in adolescents and young adults are unwanted and many are the consequence of inconsistent contraception use. Objective: To analyze the risk factors that may influence on female adolescents with unwanted pregnancies. Method: Cross-sectional, descriptive study in Ecuadorian female medical students, where the 2013 National Sexual and Reproductive Health Survey, the family APGAR scale, and the Graffar-Méndez Castellanos socio-economic scale were used. Results: There was statistically significant difference in the age of active sexual life initiation between those who became pregnant (18.11 ± 1.45) and those who did not (19.22 ± 2.28). Average age at pregnancy was 20.41 ± 2.18; 59.3 % of those who had a pregnancy and 32% of those without pregnancy did not use protection in their first intercourse. Pregnancy was more common in city residents (100 %), Catholic females (85.2 %), who belonged to middle-high (55.6 %) and middle socioeconomic strata (29.6 %) and to families with moderate dysfunction (40.7 %). Conclusions: A significant percentage of adolescents in our study had an unwanted pregnancy at an early age despite being young undergraduate medical students, coming from moderately dysfunctional families and belonging to a middle-high socioeconomic status.