This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
US teen birth rates remain highest among industrialized countries
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Birth rates among adolescents in the United States teen are at a record low since their peak in 1991, due to increased use of contraception at first intercourse and use of dual contraceptive methods, according to a recent addendum to a 2005 AAP policy statement.
However, the 2006 to 2010 National Survey of Family Growth indicated that less than one-third of girls aged 15 to 19 years consistently used contraception at last intercourse.
Cora C. Breuner, MD, MPH, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, and colleagues, reported that 88% of births to teens aged 15 to 19 years resulted from unintended pregnancies. Abortion rates among teens have decreased by 20.7% in the last decade, with a 5.8% decrease noted from 2004 to 2008. The abortion rate among teens aged 15 to 19 years was 14.3 per 1,000 girls in 2008, which represented 16.2% of abortions that year.
In 2010, Congress funded President Obama’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. Of these funds, $75 million supported medically accurate and age-appropriate programs designed to reduce teen pregnancy, while $25 million aided development and testing of additional models and initiative strategies.
Along with these efforts, the CDC has supported a 5-year demonstration project to reduce teen pregnancy and birth rates by 10% in certain communities between 2010 and 2015. The demonstration project aims to strengthen ties between prevention programs and community-based clinical services, increase teens’ access to evidence-based prevention programs, and educate stakeholders about evidence-based strategies to reduce teen pregnancy.
“Although there are decreasing numbers of teenagers who become pregnant, the issue remains an important concern, particularly because the United States still has among the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world. Fortunately, there are many tools available to combat teen pregnancy, and the CDC effort is one example of renewed interest and distribution of resources for this important issue,” Breuner and colleagues concluded.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts