KDHE Home - Health - CHES - Teenage Pregnancy - 1995 Teenage Pregnancy Report


Special Teenage Pregnancy Summary, 1995


Created March 1997 by the Center for Health and Environmental Statistics' Office of Health Care Information with assistance from Rhonda K. Lewis, PhD, MPH, Kansas Health Foundation Fellow.  Tables appear on this page. Figures have their own pages to reduce download time.  Right-scrolling may be necessary to view some tables and figures.
Table of Contents
  • Teen Pregnancy Summary
  • Teen Pregnancy Highlights
  • Table 1 -- Pregnancy Outcomes for Females 10-19 by Age-Group
  • Table 2 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates by Age-Group for Kansas and U.S. 1980-95
  • Table 3 -- Teenage Pregnancy Outcomes for Females 10-19 by Age-Group, Race and Hispanic Origin, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 4 -- Teenage Pregnancy Outcomes for Females 10-19 by Race and Hispanic Origin, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 5 -- Teenage Pregnancy Outcomes for Females 10-19 by Age-Group and Previous Pregnancies, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 6 -- Teenage Pregnancy Outcomes for Females 10-19 by Age-Group and Marital Status, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 7 -- Live Births to Mothers 15-19 Years of Age, Kansas, Selected Years, 1950-1995
  • Table 8 -- Low Birth Weight Teen and Nonteen Live Births by Race and Hispanic Origin of Mother, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 9 -- Teenage Live Births, Number of Prenatal Visits by Age-Group of Mother, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 10 -- Teenage Live Births, Trimester Care began by Age-Group of Mother, Kansas, 1995
  • Table 11 -- Teenage Pregnancies (10-17 years of age) by County of Residence, Kansas, 1991-1995
  • Table 12 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates (10-17 years of age) by County of Residence, Kansas, 1991-1995
  • Table 13 -- Teenage Pregnancies (10-19 years of age) by County of Residence, Kansas, 1991-1995
  • Table 14 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates (10-19 years of age) by County of Residence, Kansas, 1991-1995
  • Figure 1 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates by Age-Group, Kansas, 1980-95
  • Figure 2 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates by Age-Group for Kansas and U.S. 1980-95
  • Figure 3 -- Teenage Pregnancy Outcomes by Race and Hispanic Origin of Mother, Kansas, 1995
  • Figure 4 -- Live Birth Rates to Mothers 15-19 Years of Age, Kansas, Selected Years, 1950-1995
  • Figure 5 -- Low Birth Weight Teen and Nonteen Live Births by Race and Hispanic Origin of Mother, Kansas, 1995
  • Figure 6 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates for Females Aged 10-17, Kansas, 1991-1995
  • Figure 7 -- Teenage Pregnancy Rates for Females Aged 10-19, Kansas, 1991-1995

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    SPECIAL TEENAGE PREGNANCY SUMMARY

    Teenage females accounted for nearly fifteen percent (14.9) of the pregnancies in 1995. Nearly, three-fourths of the teenage pregnancies (4,868) resulted in a live birth, approximately one-fourth (1,647) in abortion and the rest in fetal deaths (37). Of the 6,552 Kansas females aged 10-19 who were pregnant in 1995, 97.7 percent were between 15 and 19 years of age.

    The reduction of teen pregnancies is a critical public health goal for Kansas. In order to help teenagers avoid the negative outcomes of early childbearing-low birth weight infants, out-of-wed-lock births, fetal and infant deaths and abortion-the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has incorporated teen pregnancy intervention into a number of their programs. These programs: Mothers and Infants, Healthy Start, Family Planning and Wic are helping teen mothers and their children deal with the serious economic, social and health effects of teen pregnancy.

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    As a result of special state fund appropriations the past few years, KDHE and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilatation Services, have been working together in developing strategies to reduce teen pregnancy and long term welfare dependency by teen parents. This combined effort has resulted in several grants being awarded to counties and communities with high teen pregnancy rates.

    The purpose of this summary is to present selected statistics about teenage pregnancies and births to Kansas resident females. A teenage pregnancy is defined as a live birth, fetal death or abortion occurring to a female under 20 years of age.

    This summary includes teenage pregnancy numbers and rates by county for the 10-17 and 10-19 age-groups. These data are broken out for females aged 10-17 in order to examine the potential effects of teen pregnancy programs targeted at school age children in the state. The rates were calculated from age-group data from the Kansas Division of the Budget, KDHE, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Please refer to the footnotes in Tables 12 and 14 for a further explanation on how rates were calculated for these age-groupings.

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    Rates based on a small or large number of events in a sparsely populated area can vary widely. Therefore, one must use caution when comparing rates between counties of low population sizes to avoid misleading conclusions. For example, rates for 10-19 year olds will exhibit less fluctuation than with the individual age-groups. Also, 5-year rates will fluctuate less than rates for individual years.

    The source documents for the data are certificates of live births, fetal deaths and reports of abortions filed with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

    We hope this summary is a useful resource for health professionals and community leaders interested in teenage pregnancy. 

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    TEENAGE PREGNANCY HIGHLIGHTS

    • The number of teenage pregnancies declined 24.6 percent between 1980 and 1995. This decrease has been primarily due to a declining teenage population in the 1980's. In the 1990's Kansas' teen pregnancies began to rise once more. Between 1990 and 1995 teen pregnancies increased 9.3 percent. (Table 1)
    • Trends in teenage pregnancy rates and the number of pregnancies have paralleled each other. Between 1980 and 1995, the pregnancy rate for teenagers 10-19 decreased 23.8 percent. (Table 2, Figure 1 )

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    • Most of the pregnancies for females under 20 years of age occur to those females in the 15-19 age-group. The Kansas teenage pregnancy rate for teenagers 15-19 years of age decreased 13.9 percent between 1980 and 1995. In comparison, the U.S. teenage pregnancy rate for females 15-19 years of age increased by 4.5 percent between 1980 and 1991. (Tables 1 and 2, Figure 2).
    • The Kansas teenage pregnancy rate for females 10-19 was 59.5 percent lower than the U.S. rate in 1980 and 70.0 percent lower in 1991. (Table 2)
    • White teens 10-19 accounted for 5,352 (81.7 percent) of the teen pregnancies in 1995; among African Americans teens, 982 (15.0 percent) were reported; and among Hispanic teens, there were 621 (9.5 percent). (Table 3)

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    • There is a notable difference in the types of pregnancy outcomes for Hispanic teens 10-19 compared to White and African American teens. In 1995, 88.2 percent of the pregnancies to Hispanic teens resulted in a live birth, as compared to 73.8 percent for White teens and 77.8 percent for African American teens. While, 25.6 percent of the reported pregnancies for White teens and 21.5 percent of the pregnancies for African American teens were terminated by an induced abortion, only 11.3 percent of the pregnancies reported for Hispanic teens resulted in an induced abortion. (Table 4, Figure 3)
    • Twenty-eight (28.3) percent of the teenage females in 1995 had experienced at least one prior pregnancy. (Table 5 )
    • Over three-fourths (78.8 percent) of the teenage pregnancies in 1995 were to unmarried females. (Table 6 )
    • The percent of out-of-wedlock live births for women aged 15-19 has increased from 7.4 percent in 1950 to 72.4 percent in 1995. (Table 7)
    • Since the 1950's the rate of live births to mothers 15-19 years of age in Kansas has declined 31.7 percent from 76.3 live births per 1,000 population in 1950 to 52.1 in 1995. (Table 7, Figure 4)

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    • The low birth weight rate for teens in 1995 was 91.4 per 1,000 live births compared to 60.1 for nonteens, making the rate for teens 52.1 percent higher. The rate of 86.4 for White teens was 57.4 percent higher than that of 54.9 for White nonteens. However, for African American teens the rate of 123.0 was 0.2 percent, which was only slightly higher than that of 122.7 for African American nonteens. (Table 8, Figure 5)
    • Over half (56.1 percent) of the teen mothers who had live births in 1995 had more than ten prenatal visits but only 71.2 percent received prenatal care in the first trimester. (Tables 9 and 10)
    • The rate of teen pregnancies for Kansas resident females aged 10-17 increased by 11.8 percent from 14.4 in 1991 to 16.1 in 1995. Wyandotte, Geary, and Seward counties had the highest five-year (1991-1995) teenage pregnancy rates of 33.6, 33.2, and 32.1 per 1,000 female 10-17 age-group population. (Table 12, Figure 6)
    • Teen pregnancy rates for Kansas resident females aged 10-19 increased by 3.6 percent from 33.3 percent in 1991 to 34.5 percent in 1995. Geary, Wyandotte, and Seward counties had the highest five-year (1991-1995) teenage pregnancy rates of 77.6, 62.4, and 61.0 per 1,000 female 10-19 age-group population. (Table 14, Figure 7)

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    TABLE 1
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES FOR FEMALES 10-19
    BY AGE-GROUP
    KANSAS, 1980-1995
    Births Fetal Deaths Reported Abortions
    Age-Group Age-Group Age-Group Total Teen
    Year 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total Pregnancies*
    1980 59 6,025 6,084 2 55 57 61 2,485 2,546 8,687
    1981 56 5,739 5,795 1 53 54 40 2,179 2,219 8,068
    1982 52 5,399 5,451 1 49 50 45 1,961 2,006 7,507
    1983 49 4,966 5,015 - 49 49 47 1,664 1,711 6,775
    1984 60 4,650 4,710 3 32 35 49 1,549 1,598 6,343
    1985 72 4,420 4,492 1 43 44 49 1,304 1,353 5,889
    1986 73 4,417 4,490 2 39 41 28 1,217 1,245 5,776
    1987 58 4,271 4,329 3 43 46 24 1,183 1,207 5,582
    1988 50 4,337 4,387 1 29 30 39 1,447 1,486 5,903
    1989 78 4,498 4,576 1 39 40 38 1,219 1,257 5,873
    1990 65 4,693 4,758 1 32 33 27 1,175 1,202 5,993
    1991 68 4,507 4,575 1 29 30 29 1,109 1,138 5,743
    1992 68 4,621 4,689 1 26 27 42 1,407 1,449 6,165
    1993 77 4,722 4,799 - 26 26 56 1,524 1,580 6,405
    1994 66 4,717 4,783 2 27 29 56 1,632 1,688 6,500
    1995 75 4,793 4,868 - 37 37 78 1,569 1,647 6,552
    *Total pregnancies is the sum of live births, reported abortions and fetal deaths for year indicated.
    Residence data

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    TABLE 2
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY RATES* BY AGE-GROUP
    KANSAS AND THE UNITED STATES, 1980-1995
    10-14 15-19 10-19
    Year Kansas U.S. Kansas U.S. Kansas U.S.
    1980 .......... 1.4 3.2 80.7 110.0 45.3 111.9
    1981 .......... 1.1 3.1 76.8 109.2 42.7 110.5
    1982 .......... 1.1 3.1 73.1 107.8 40.2 110.1
    1983 .......... 1.1 3.3 67.9 107.2 36.9 108.0
    1984 .......... 1.3 3.5 65.2 105.8 35.0 107.4
    1985 .......... 1.4 3.6 62.3 106.9 32.9 108.3
    1986 .......... 1.2 3.6 62.9 104.7 32.8 106.7
    1987 .......... 1.0 3.5 62.6 104.8 31.9 106.8
    1988 .......... 1.0 3.4 67.7 109.4 33.7 109.1
    1989 .......... 1.3 3.4 68.6 113.2 33.4 111.0
    1990 .......... 1.1 3.3 70.5 115.0 35.1 113.8
    1991 .......... 1.1 3.2 69.0 115.0 33.3 111.1
    1992 .......... 1.2 n.a. 72.6 n.a. 34.8 n.a.
    1993 .......... 1.4 n.a. 73.3 n.a. 35.2 n.a.
    1994 .......... 1.3 n.a. 71.9 n.a. 34.8 n.a.
    1995 .......... 1.6 n.a. 69.5 n.a. 34.5 n.a.
    *Rate per 1,000 female age-group population
    Source for U.S. data: National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control
    Residence data

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    TABLE 3
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES FOR FEMALES 10-19
    BY AGE-GROUP, RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN 
    KANSAS, 1995
    Births Fetal Deaths Reported Abortions Total Teen
    Race and Age-Group Age-Group Age-Group Pregnancies*
    Hispanic Origin 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total Number  Percent
    Total 75 4,793 4,868 - 37 37 78 1,569 1,647 6,552 100.0
    White 44 3,905 3,949 - 30 30 53 1,320 1,373 5,352 81.7
    African 29 735 764 - 7 7 22 189 211 982 15.0
    Native - 63 63 - - - 1 19 20 83 1.3
    Asian\Pacific 2 67 69 - - - 1 27 28 97 1.5
    Other - 13 13 - - - - 2 2 15 0.2
    Not Stated - 10 10 - - - 1 12 13 23 0.3
    Hispanic** 12 536 548 - 3 3 4 66 70 621 9.5
    *Total pregnancies is the sum of live births, reported abortions and fetal deaths
    **Hispanic can be of any race
    Residence data

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    TABLE 4
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES FOR FEMALES 10-19
    BY RACE* AND HISPANIC ORIGIN
    KANSAS, 1995
    African Native  Asian/
    Pregnancy Total Teen White American American Pacific Hispanic***
    Outcomes Pregnancies** Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
    Total 6,552 5,352 100.0 982 100.0 83 100.0 97 100.0 621 100.0
    Live Birth 4,868 3,949 73.8 764 77.8 63 75.9 69 71.1 548 88.2
    Fetal Death 37 30 0.6 7 0.7 - - - - 3 0.5
    Abortion 1,647 1,373 25.6 211 21.5 20 24.1 28 28.9 70 11.3
    *Race was not stated for 23 pregnancies and 15 pregnancies occurred to other races. 
    **Total pregnancies is the sum of live births, reported abortions and fetal deaths
    ***Hispanic origin can be of any race
    Residence data

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    TABLE 5
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES FOR FEMALES 10-19
    BY AGE-GROUP AND PREVIOUS PREGNANCIES 
    KANSAS, 1995
    Births Fetal Deaths Reported Abortions Total Teen
    Previous Age-Group Age-Group Age-Group Pregnancies*
    Pregnancies 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total Number  Percent
    Total 75 4,793 4,868 - 37 37 78 1,569 1,647 6,552 100.0
    None 72 3,397 3,469 - 25 25 73 1,119 1,192 4,686 71.5
    One 3 1,055 1,058 - 8 8 5 316 321 1,387 21.2
    Two - 256 256 - 3 3 - 94 94 353 5.4
    Three - 63 63 - 1 1 - 19 19 83 1.2
    Four and Over - 21 21 - - - - 18 18 39 0.6
    Not Stated - 1 1 - - - - 3 3 4 0.1
    *Total pregnancies is the sum of live births, reported abortions and fetal deaths
    Residence data

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    TABLE 6
    TEENAGE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES FOR FEMALES 10-19
    BY AGE-GROUP AND MARITAL STATUS
    KANSAS, 1995
    Births Fetal Deaths Reported Abortions Total Teen
    Age-Group Age-Group Age-Group Pregnancies*
    Marital Status 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total 10-14 15-19 Total Number  Percent
    Total 75 4,793 4,868 - 37 37 78 1,569 1,647 6,552 100.0
    Married 1 1,320 1,321 - 11 11 - 53 53 1,385 21.1
    Not Married 74 3,470 3,544 - 26 26 78 1,511 1,589 5,159 78.8
    Not Stated - 3 3 - - - - 5 5