Análise espacial da gravidez na adolescência no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy is commonly linked to unfavorable living conditions, which multiple factors may involve and contribute to its existence. In that matter it is known that in order to propose effective strategies, aiming to face this problem in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), the assodation of demographic and regional factors - as social and economic determinants of this process - becomes necessary. Thus an ecological study was done, aiming to analyze the spatial distribution of teenage pregnancy and its correlation with these factors in the period from 2001 to 2010. For this matter we used the Information System on Live Births (SINASC) as a source of data regarding not only the births whose mothers were teenagers during the pregnancy period but also it was adopted as a tool for analyzing the cities of the State. For the study the proportion of live births of teenage mothers’ babies was considered the outcome variable and, as independent variable, those related to sodo-demographic , economic , labor market , education and access related to Services and social assistance. Exploratory analysis were made regarding both the independent and dependent variables and thematic maps were buiti using SIG terraView 4.1.0. The spatial autocorrelation for all variables and the statistical program GeoDa was also calculated; the variables were subjected to bivariate analysis. The most important results found were a spatial dependence among teenage pregnancy espedally in the age group from 15 to 19 years old in the regions covering the munidpalities of the 8th and 3rd regions of the State Infant Health, locais that historically produce oil, gas and sea salt -which was cartographically branded as "Crab Region of Teen Pregnancy ". Through the analyzes it was concluded that, although this region covers some of the municipalities with the highest GDP per capita in the State, these riches are not redistributed to the community in general, as teenage pregnancy is strongly explained by poverty, low quality education and access to the components of the Family Health Strategy.