Recurrence of unintended pregnancies among HIV-positive adolescent girls in Kenya: extent and implications for birth outcomes

Francis Obare, Population Council
Anke van der Kwaak, Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands
Harriet Birungi, Population Council

This paper examines the extent of recurrence of unintended pregnancies among HIV-positive adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in Kenya and how these experiences relate to birth outcomes. Study participants were identified through HIV/AIDS programs in Coast, Nairobi, Nyanza and Rift Valley regions. Analysis entails the estimation of multi-level random-intercept logit models. The results show that higher order pregnancies among HIV-positive adolescents were just as likely to be unintended as lower order ones. Unintended pregnancies were, however, not significantly associated with poor birth outcomes. Rather, higher order pregnancies were significantly more likely to result in poor outcomes compared to lower order ones. The findings suggest the need to strengthen the provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services to HIV-positive adolescent clients within HIV/AIDS programs in order to reduce the risk of undesired consequences of unplanned and unprotected sex, including the high rates of unintended pregnancies.