From observation to evidence: harnessing the mental status examination as a real-world data source in clinical research.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and high-risk behaviors which may result in pregnancy. A World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2014 put the global adolescent birth rate at 49 per 1000 girls aged 15 to 19 years. Adolescent pregnancy in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa was 18.8% and 19.3% respectively. In Uganda, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is reported to remain high at 25% as the national prevalence rate,. The highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in Uganda are reported in the East Central region at 30.6% and rural teenagers having higher rates than their urban counterparts (25% verses 21%). Adolescent pregnancy is a major public health and social problem which has implications on the educational opportunity, population growth and health of women. Risk factors for teenage pregnancy include family and individual characteristics of the adolescents. Adolescent pregnancy results in various health complications for them and their infants, risk of stopping education, early marriage, a lifetime cycle of poverty and deaths from pregnancy-related conditions. Dropping out of school puts them into the cycle of poverty and this affects attainment of SDG 1 which calls for an end to poverty in all its manifestations by 2030. Despite several efforts, adolescent pregnancy increased from 24% to 25% between 2011 and 2016,. Moreover, the current average rate of reduction in teenage pregnancies is so slow at 3% per year over the last 10 years. The 14% target of adolescent pregnancy by the Ugandan Ministry of Health may not be achieved unless there are efforts to accelerate the current reduction rate. We therefore set out to determine the risk factors for pregnancy among adolescents in Wakiso and Kamuli districts, an urban and rural district respectively.