NURS-FPX4060 Assessment 1 Health Promotion Plan: Teenage Pregnancy

The teenage population is a significant yet vulnerable segment of the world population. As the world’s fastest-growing demographic, adolescents face huge challenges in health, education, and other areas. In terms of health, a recurring worry is adolescent females who are at risk of teenage pregnancy, which has significant health, social, and psychological consequences.

Health Promotion Plan: Teenage Pregnancy

Adolescent pregnancy refers to pregnancy in a teenage girl under the age of 20 years, much as adolescence refers to ages 10 to 19 (WHO, 2022). Due to the economic and health consequences, great attention has been placed on health preventive and promotion initiatives to combat the teenage problem.

As such, this paper aims to examine a community health problem (teenage pregnancy), explain why it will benefit from a health promotion plan, and emphasize the agreed-upon health goals targeted at alleviating the hardship of the afflicted population.

Analysis of the Community Health Concern

The adolescent population is the demographic of interest on which the following discussion is centered. According to the United Nations Population Fund (2022), the teenage population is the fastest rising, with adolescent females aged 10-24 accounting for around 25% of the world’s population.

This demographic has several hurdles, one of which is that, despite their early age, they are often deemed eligible for marriage and ready for parenthood, which destroys their school and employment goals and jeopardizes their health.

Teenage pregnancy brings considerable health risks, in addition to economical and psychological risks, to the lives of those affected. According to the WHO (2022), pregnancy and childbirth complications are among the major causes of mortality among teenage females aged 15 to 19 years worldwide. Every year, an estimated 21 million females aged 15 to 19 in developing nations get pregnant, with around 12 million giving birth (WHO, 2022).

While the predicted teenage birthing rate has decreased over time, the actual number of adolescent births remains high. To support this claim, the teenage birth rate in 2000 was 64.5 births per 1000 women, whereas it was 42.5 births per 1000 women in 202; however, the rates of change are varied among geographical areas (WHO, 2022).

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) had the highest rates of teenage birth rates in the world, with 101 and 53.2 births per 1000 women, respectively, in 2021 (WHO, 2022). The startling statistics, as well as the significant impact of adolescent pregnancy on health, such as the risk of preeclampsia and child mortality, socioeconomic consequences, such as a negative effect on future earning potential and the risk of lifelong poverty, impact on education (cutting short the educational journey), and the stigma associated with it, necessitate a health promotion plan to combat the global health crisis.

Why the Population is Predisposed to the Health Concern and why the Health Concern is Important for Health Promotion

Several factors contribute to adolescent pregnancies and births. First, some cultures place pressure on young girls to marry and have children. UNICEF (2021) presented stunning statistics on child marriage, estimating that there were 650 million child brides worldwide in 2021.

Due to their incapacity to make autonomous choices about when to have their subsequent pregnancy and which contraception to take, adolescent girls in marriage are at an increased risk of pregnancy. In addition, young girls with poor socioeconomic positions are in danger of pregnancy because older, financially secure males use them as prey to fulfill their sexual profligacy. Child sexual abuse also increases the risk of unwanted adolescent pregnancies.

According to a WHO (2020) estimate, around 120 million females under the age of 20 have had some type of forced sexual intercourse. Furthermore, low educational attainment and financial hurdles may be a barrier to acquiring and utilizing contraception, increasing the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies and births among adolescent girls.

To lessen the burden of adolescent pregnancy on affected girls and the community as a whole, it is critical to engage in health promotion strategies. Adolescents experience significant gaps in access to services such as health and education. Because they are still under the legal age of informed decision-making, they are unable to make autonomous viable judgments, putting their health at risk.

Furthermore, since child marriage may destroy young girls’ educational and financial goals, they become dependent on the assistance of their older or adolescent spouses, who may not fully support their access to different resources (Salam & Aktar, 2020).

These gaps are exacerbated by racial prejudice and gender stereotypes that portray women as inferior. Because the reasons for adolescent pregnancy are recognized, it is simple to establish health promotion strategies centered on each of the risk factors to reduce teenage pregnancy. Furthermore, given the disparity and inequities in access to critical services among adolescent pregnant females, health promotion strategies are the greatest tools to alleviate their suffering.

Established Agreed-Upon Health Goals in Collaboration with Hypothetical Patients

Collaboration with multiple healthcare practitioners across different contexts is critical to reducing adolescent pregnancies. Preventing teenage pregnancy and childbearing, as well as child marriage, is one of the SDGs with specialized indicators that serve as the foundation for the agreed-upon health objectives. T

he health objectives are as follows: lower adolescent birth rates (aged 10-14 years), lower adolescent birth rates (aged 15-19 years), and lower the proportion of women aged 20-24 years who marry before the age of 18. It is critical to enhancing access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including family planning, education, and information, and the integration of reproductive health into national plans and programs, to attain the aforementioned objectives.

To achieve the objectives, a bold collaboration between healthcare practitioners and affected adolescent persons is required. In this scenario, the adolescent girls would explain the barriers they have in obtaining health care and other services from other sectors, as well as what they see as perfect service delivery and the steps they are prepared to take to attain the objectives. Healthcare practitioners, on the other hand, will examine the needs of teenage girls and plan on how to satisfy those needs using the available resources.

Conclusion

Adolescent pregnancy and childbirth complications are among the leading causes of death among teenage females worldwide. Teenage pregnancy is caused by a variety of factors, the most prominent of which include child marriage, child sexual abuse, poor socioeconomic and low educational level.

Since these factors are recognized, it is simple to develop health promotion initiatives focusing on each risk factor for teenage pregnancy. In the process of designing health promotion programs to minimize teenage pregnancies, healthcare workers must collaborate with adolescent girls to identify health goals and methods for achieving them.

Health Promotion Plan: Teenage Pregnancy References

NURS-FPX4060 Assessment 1 Teen Pregnancy Health Promotion Plan Sample 2

Nurses are noble professionals who assess populations, promote their health, producing better health outcomes. Promotive and preventive health focuses on preventing illnesses and other health concerns before they arise. It produces healthier populations, hence increased productivity and better-quality lives. Community assessment results help determine community problems and plan their prevention, management, and control. This essay focuses on a health promotion plan that addresses teen pregnancy issues in the community.

 

Teen Pregnancy, Areas of Uncertainty, and Underlying Assumptions

Teen pregnancy is the pregnancy in girls below 20 years. The US pregnancy rate is about 25 per 1000 females and is highest among girls aged 15-19 (CDC, 2022). The US birth rate is at 15.4 as of 2020, a steady decline over the last decade. Despite the decline, CDC (2022) notes that the US has had the highest pregnancy rate among the developed countries. About 90% of the pregnant teens are unmarried, about 30% end in abortion, and about 15% end in miscarriage. Birth complications are the second leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19, making teen pregnancy a health issue of concern.

A major assumption is that all abortions and miscarriages are reported, whether complicated or not. Statistics show that more than 65% of teens who get pregnant complete high school, and less than 10% get a college degree (House et al., 2019). Most of these students are in high school, and drug abuse, poverty, and peer pressure are the leading causes.

Most of these pregnancies remain hidden, and miscarriages and abortions are never reported. Abortions and miscarriages are only reported when teens develop complications. Knowledge of the number of actual teen pregnancies is thus important. These gaps in care have made estimating and planning for teen pregnancy difficult.

Attempts to manage the problem, such as sex education and availing family planning services to the teens, have been opposed as immoral and inappropriate, making their progress slow. Sensitizing the affected group is thus an integral step to help in the progressive prevention of teen pregnancy.

Teen Pregnancy and Health Promotion

The largest number of teen pregnancies occur among high school students. The students have less information when joining high school, and thus, educating them about the prevalence, dangers, and how to avoid pregnancy before joining high school is thus a priority. Thus, upper school (grade seven and eight) students are the best group to prevent teen pregnancies.

Educating teens helps them seek help and make informed decisions regarding sexual activity. The information helps counter misinformation among high school peers, preventing teenage pregnancy. High school students account for about 80% of pregnancies. Students who drop out of primary and high school have higher chances of getting pregnant. Both genders engage in sexual activity; thus, educating both genders is vital.

Characteristics of the Chosen Hypothetical Group

The target is Mississippi State teens. The specific target population in this state is grade seven and eight students aged 12-14 years. Primary schools in the state accommodate students from all races and ethnic groups. Statistics show that pregnancy and sexual activity rates increase drastically from ages 14 to 19. Thus, it is vital to educate them and prevent pregnancy early. Mississippi is the state with the highest teen birth rate in the US. Mississippi has a high percentage of African Americans (37%) and non-Hispanic whites (53%).

The students in upper primary school have less sexual education. This stage is the best to educate them to prevent them from indulging in sex with false information to enhance sexual activity. Education for both genders is integral and equally important to increase responsibility. Besides pregnancy, sexual activity increases the risk for sexually transmitted infections hence the need for educating both genders.

Current Teens Health Data

Teens have various problems such as drug abuse, bullying, suicide, and pregnancy issues. Statistics show that about 3-4% of teens have poor health, with about 4% missing school for more than 11 days due to health problems, and teen pregnancy is the leading cause of chronic absenteeism (House et al., 2022). More than 2.7% of teens smoke, and about 9% abuse alcohol: drug abuse is a leading cause of teen pregnancy (TeenHelp., n.d.). Thus, educating these teens will touch on the drug abuse burden.

As noted in the CDC (2022) statistics, pregnancy rates are highest among females between the ages of 15 and 19. This group faces various problems that include puberty. They have secondary sexual changes such as attraction to the opposite gender and the exciting transition to high school. In addition, peer influence, myths, and misinformation in teenage increases the risk for sexual behaviors.

Most teens report having sex to “fit in” with peers to a common misconception that having sex is a sign of maturity (Charlton et al.,2018). In addition, a significant percentage of youths reported having sex under drugs. More than a third of pregnant teens admitted to using drugs, a portion almost twice that of the teen population.

Factors Contributing to Health, Health Disparities, and Access to Health Services

TeenHelp (n.d.) reports that teens are more likely to get involved in drug abuse to please peers, and more than half of the teens who get pregnant on drugs influence do so involuntarily. Drugs make young girls vulnerable to pers and older adolescents, hence the high rate of pregnancies among the drug users compared to the teen population. Many institutions do not deliver adequate sex education to teens, making it easy to get misleading information.

Thus, teens have no knowledge to help access reproductive health services. Most teens also fear seeking help and opt for abortion to avoid being labeled and discriminated against in society (Charlton et al., 2018). Teens from uneducated families often receive less sex from parents, increasing exposure.

Chrlton et al. (2018) also note that individuals with diverse sexual orientations (lesbian and bisexual) are twice likely to get pregnant. Berman et al. (2018) note that individuals from families living below the poverty line are exposed to sexual activity to meet daily needs. These factors contribute to teen pregnancy, health disparities, and poor access to healthcare services.

Importance of Creating Mutual Goals with the Hypothetical Population

Mutually agreed-upon goals are integral when addressing teen pregnancy in this population. Mutually prepared goals will help ensure all areas contributing to teen pregnancy are addressed because both teams agree on what areas to cover, ensuring comprehensiveness and inclusion (Miller et al., 2018). The population will air their problems and question, and so will the facilitator hence better outcomes. Learners and facilitators can assess learning outcomes and achieve set objectives (Miller, 2018).

People learn better when they understand the objectives and much better when they participate in setting the objectives. In addition, mutually agreed-upon goals will facilitate program ownership for both. By the end of the learning lesson, the learners must understand the concept of teen pregnancy and be able to teach others. They also should explain the causes of teen pregnancy and the effects of pregnancy among teens. Lastly, the population should outline the methods of teen pregnancy prevention methods.

Conclusion

Teen pregnancy is a health issue that affects majorly high school students. Teens are exposed to pregnancy due to poverty, drug and substance abuse, lack of knowledge, and poor guidance by parents and teachers. Teen pregnancy affects majorly high school students, and health promotion in students before they join high school is important. The education will prevent misinformation and enhance teen pregnancy prevention skills. Creating mutually agreed-upon goals will help enhance the success of the health promotion session.

Health Promotion Plan: Teenage Pregnancy References

Berman, R. S., Patel, M. R., Belamarich, P. F., & Gross, R. S. (2018). Screening for poverty and poverty-related social determinants of health. Pediatrics in Review, 39(5), 235-246. https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.2017-0123

Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (2022). Reproductive Health: Teen Pregnancy. https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/index.htm

Charlton, B. M., Roberts, A. L., Rosario, M., Katz-Wise, S. L., Calzo, J. P., Spiegelman, D., & Austin, S. B. (2018). Teen pregnancy risk factors among young women of diverse sexual orientations. Pediatrics, 141(4). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-2278

Frederiksen, B. N., Rivera, M. I., Ahrens, K. A., Malcolm, N. M., Brittain, A. W., Rollison, J. M., & Moskosky, S. B. (2018). Clinic-based programs to prevent repeat teen pregnancy: A systematic review. American Journal Of Preventive Medicine, 55(5), 736-746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2018.08.001

House, L. D., Tevendale, H., Brittain, A., Burley, K., Fuller, T. R., Mueller, T.,& Koumans, E. H. (2022). Implementation of Community-Wide Initiatives Designed to Reduce Teen Pregnancy: Measuring progress in a 5-Year Project in 10 Communities. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 19(2), 496-508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00565-y

Miller, V. A. (2018). Involving youth with a chronic illness in decision-making: highlighting the role of providers. Pediatrics, 142(Supplement_3), S142-S148. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-0516D

TeenHelp.com (n.d.). Teen Pregnancy Statistics. Retrieved 5th August 2022, from https://www.teenhelp.com/c/teen-pregnancy/

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