Understanding patterns and prevalence of repeat teenage pregnancy

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Understanding patterns and prevalence of repeat teenage pregnancy in England and Wales - data linkage project.

• IRAS ID

  150533

• Contact name

  Lisa McDaid

• Contact email

  l.mcdaid@uea.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of East Anglia

• Research summary

  Not all teenage pregnancies are first time occurrences. However, there is no comprehensive national data on the prevalence of repeat teenage conceptions or the patterns of these in terms of outcomes (termination or birth) in the UK. The best and most complete data on births and abortions come from two data sources: maternity data derived from the legal registration of births in England and Wales (General Register Office) and abortion data derived from the mandatory notification of every abortion performed in England and Wales to the Chief Medical Officer (Department of Health). This present study proposes linking together these two datasets and using formal identifiers to produce one single dataset that will provide more detailed information on repeat teenage pregnancies.

  We particularly wish to explore repeat teenage pregnancy patterns for those who have more than one pregnancy before 20 years.

  • what proportion have an initial termination followed by a second termination
  • what proportion have an initial termination followed by a delivery
  • what proportion have an initial delivery followed by a termination
  • what proportion have an initial delivery followed by a second delivery

  We believe it is useful to understand whether those who end their initial pregnancy in termination are more or less likely to have a repeat teenage pregnancy than those who deliver, and how soon after this is likely to occur, in order to inform service provision.

• REC name

  West of Scotland REC 4

• REC reference

  14/WS/1048

• Date of REC Opinion

  15 Jul 2014

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion