Prevalences of Teenage Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Selected Urban Schools: Implementing School Health and Return to School Re-Entry Policy in Kenya

Abstract

Background: Teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among teenage school girls are a global social menace of public health importance. The Kenya National School Health Policy of 2022, 2018, & 2009 was developed to mitigate teenage pregnancy and facilitate continued pursuit of education post-pregnancy on a Return-to-School framework. The policy was expected to protect the girls from getting pregnant and support them if it occurred so as to enable them pursue their education on the basis of the Return-to-School Policy. However, despite this government led intervention, the extent of implementation of the National School Health Policy and its impact in reducing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among girls in our schools still indicate a high prevalence. Purpose of the Study: This study was been designed to determine the prevalences of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections in relation to the implementation of school health and return to school policy in selected urban schools in Kenya. Methodology: This was an analytical cross-sectional study that triangulated mixed methods of study in 57 secondary schools that offered co-education or girls’ only that involved 174 pregnant or previously pregnant teenage-girl’ participants. The target population consisted of school girls aged 15-19 years, who were pregnant or had had a previous pregnancy in the course of their studies. Multistage followed by cluster sampling techniques were used to identify selected urban towns for study while simple random sampling was used to identify girls or co-education schools. Data Analysis: Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 17 while association between variables and hypothesis testing was done by Chi-square test at 95% confidence interval. Findings of Focus Group Discussion and Key informant Interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically, content by content. Study Findings: The prevalence of HIV among the teen pregnant school girls at health urban facilities was highest in Nyeri at 0.23% against 0.3% for Kenyan national figure of adolescents. In terms of prevalence of HIV among the urban school populations, Mombasa recorded 0.012 as the highest among the urban schools. Similarly, Mombasa had the highest figure of 14.37% of incidental sexually transmitted Infections among pregnant girls in the urban schools. Conclusions: The prevalence of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections was relatively high compared to the national figure on adolescents. Recommendations: There is a need to introduce and establish a national comprehensive sexuality education in schools to address the sexual needs and reproductive rights of the teenagers so as to mitigate against the pregnancies and infections. Stakeholders must be involved in all its processes.