Assessing Adolescent Pregnancy - Maine, 1980-1996

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 5, 1998

This report is subject to at least five limitations. First, a critical factor that could not be assessed adequately was the school health education program in Maine. However, the 1996 Maine School Health Education Profile indicates that 97% of public middle schools and senior high schools require education about human immunodeficiency virus; of those schools, 85% taught condom efficacy and 62% taught correct use of condoms (J. Foster, Maine Department of Education, personal communication, 1998). Second, individual characteristics or behaviors could not be connected to the outcome of adolescent pregnancy and persons could not be followed over time. Third, data were incomplete for some factors that were examined and lacking for other potentially important determinants (e.g., patterns of care and visits at family-planning clinics and qualitative data about attitudes of adolescents over time). Fourth, most of the data had not been computerized, which limited analytic possibilities. Finally, changes in reporting practices over time could account for the change in pregnancy rates among adolescents; however, there were no obvious changes in reporting practices during 1980-1996 (Maine Vital Statistics Office, personal communication, 1998).

As a result of the findings in this report, the collaborating agencies have recommended the development of a prospective system to monitor and assess adolescent pregnancy rates and potential determinants of risk for pregnancy among adolescents. The Maine Adolescent Pregnancy Assessment Team would be a collaboration between agencies that collect data and agencies that use the data in making decisions on policies and programs (i.e., FPA; state departments of human services, education, and labor; and other state, professional, and community-based organizations). Changes in existing data availability and evaluation (providing adequate confidentiality) would need to facilitate 1) access to data about persons to allow follow-up over time, 2) examination of data by relevant geographic areas (e.g., county, school district, or community), 3) the linking of vital statistics and family planning clinic data to adolescents' clinic experience and pregnancy status, and 4) access to additional relevant data sources (e.g., t he Maine School Health Education Profile). The information would enable policy makers and program planners to develop plans for adolescent pregnancy-prevention efforts. Other states may want to consider using a similar prospective assessment of adolescent pregnancy rates and potential determinants to better guide research and prevention efforts at the state level.

* Public Law 104-193.

Title X provides federal grants for family planning services to adolescents and low-income women.

Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

References

1. Jones EF, Forrest JD, Goldman N, et al. Teenage pregnancy in industrialized countries. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1986.