Geographical and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Adolescent Pregnancy and Motherhood in India: A Spatial Modelling Approach to Micro-Regional Analysis

Pravat Bhandari , International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Obtaining data from fourth round of National Family and Health Survey (NFHS – 4), this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy (15-19 years) and adolescent motherhood (15-19 years) at district-level using Bayesian Geo-spatial model. I fitted Besag, York and Mollie model to predict the posterior probability of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood for all 640 districts spreading across 36 states and union territories in India. I then mapped estimated posterior probabilities to identify micro-level spatial inequalities. Factors affecting adolescent pregnancy and motherhood at individual-level were assessed using a mixed effect model. Prevalence of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood varies considerably across districts (range: 0.46% to 11.37% and 1.19% to 20.08% respectively), and found to be highly concentrated in the districts of central and western states. District-level and individual-level results highlight the close linkages between adolescent pregnancy and motherhood and female literacy, religious practices, caste norms and household wealth.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course