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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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