Prevalence and factors associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa: Evidence from the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2024.v114i16b.1241Keywords:
adverse pregnancy outcomes, prevalence, associated factors, DHS, South AfricaAbstract
Background. Adverse pregnancy outcomes are an important indicator of the overall health of a population and the socioeconomic development of a country.
Objectives. To determine the prevalence and factors associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes among women of reproductive age in South Africa, and to recommend strategies to reduce the burden of these outcomes.
Methods. We conducted a secondary data analysis on women of reproductive age using data from the nationally representative, population- based, cross-sectional 2016 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). We described the sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants and determined the prevalence and factors associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes using the multivariable logistic regression model. We adjusted all our analyses for complex survey sampling using survey weights.
Results. There were 8 514 women of reproductive age, of whom 41.2% had fallen pregnant during the 5-year period preceding the survey. The majority (70.9%) were of age 20 - 34 years, 78% had secondary education, 61.6% were unemployed, 65% were from urban areas, and more than 40% of these women were currently living with a man, while 51.5% reported that they had never been in a union. The prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes was 14.6% (95% CI 13.2 - 16.1%). The odds of experiencing adverse pregnancy outcomes were significantly higher for those aged 35 - 49 years (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 7.41, 95% CI 3.46 - 15.85) or 20 - 34 years (aOR 2.07, 95% CI 1.02 - 4.18), compared with those aged 15 - 19 years. Women who were currently in a union/living with a man (aOR 1.85, 95% CI 1.41 - 2.43) or formerly in a union/living with a man (aOR 2.66, 95% CI 1.64 - 4.29), compared with those who had never been in a union, had higher odds of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Contrarily, adverse pregnancy outcomes were lower with each additional child delivered or ever born (aOR 0.66, 95% CI 0.58 - 0.75).
Conclusions. We report a high prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes among women of reproductive age in South Africa. We recommend addressing factors such as maternal age and currently/formerly living with a man within interventions to reduce the burden of adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 L Mpolokeng, A Musekiwa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Licensing Information
The SAMJ is published under an Attribution-Non Commercial International Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License. Under this license, authors agree to make articles available to users, without permission or fees, for any lawful, non-commercial purpose. Users may read, copy, or re-use published content as long as the author and original place of publication are properly cited.
Exceptions to this license model is allowed for UKRI and research funded by organisations requiring that research be published open-access without embargo, under a CC-BY licence. As per the journals archiving policy, authors are permitted to self-archive the author-accepted manuscript (AAM) in a repository.
Publishing Rights
Authors grant the Publisher the exclusive right to publish, display, reproduce and/or distribute the Work in print and electronic format and in any medium known or hereafter developed, including for commercial use. The Author also agrees that the Publisher may retain in print or electronic format more than one copy of the Work for the purpose of preservation, security and back-up.
