Gloucestershire

South West Public Health Observatory

 

South West Public Health Observatory

Bulletin May 2001

Teenage Pregnancy in the South West of England

   The Social Exclusion Unit Report on Teenage Pregnancy

1 identified high rates of teenage pregnancy in England and Wales as an area of concern. Subsequently, local co-ordinators have been appointed with responsibility for developing and implementing strategy in this area. National and local targets have been set for a reduction in the rate of teenage pregnancy, with the aim of reducing the 1998 conception rate of 46.5 per 1000 females aged 15-17 years to 23.3 per 1000 by 2012, with a 15% reduction by 2004. 2

   The South West Public Health Observatory has published a detailed report looking the patterns of teenage conceptions (1992-8) in the South West of England. 3 This Bulletin provides more up to date information using 1999 data, recently released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

4

  

These data provide some encouraging signs that rates may be declining ( Figure 1 ). Within the South West, using the limited data available from ONS at this stage, information is presented at health authority level. For under 16 conceptions ( Table 1 ) rates are presented for two three-year periods, 1994-96, and 1997-99. For under 18 conceptions ( Table 2 ) numbers and rates of conceptions and maternities and abortions, are shown at three distinct time periods, 1994, 1996 and 1999 as provided by ONS. There has been a small decline in rates of under 18 conceptions in most health authorities, but the picture is more variable with respect to under 16 conceptions, possibly reflecting small numbers. Three year rolling averages have been calculated for local authorities in the South West for 1992-1999. These are shown in Table 3 and Figures 2-9 (grouped by health authority - see below for links ). These reveal a mixed picture at this stage, with rates appearing to decline in some local authority areas, but continuing to rise in others.
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Conceptions/1000 girls 15-17
 
Avon Health Authority
North and East Devon
Cornwall South and West Devon
Dorset Somerset
Wiltshire

Technical notes:

  1. Data on teenage pregnancy rates are calculated using the number of conceptions in under 18 year olds as the numerator, and the number of 15-17 year old women as the denominator; for under 16 year olds the number of 13-15 year old girls is used as the denominator. This is the convention used by ONS in the CDROM, but other publications may use other denominator populations.

  2. Data on the Isles of Scilly are combined with adjacent District of Penwith. This is because of the very small number of teenage girls in the Isles of Scilly.

References

  1. Social Exclusion Unit. Teenage Pregnancy. London. Stationery Office. June 1999   Download pdf (2Mb)

  • Teenage Pregnancy Unit. Implementation of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy; Progress Report. July 2000

  • South West Public Health Observatory. Teenage Pregnancy in the South West of England 1992-1998. 2001

  • Office for National Statistics. Conceptions in England and Wales 1999. Population Trends. Spring 2001

    • The Public Health Observatory is part of the South West Observatory, a wider Regional intelligence function, currently supported by the South West Regional Assembly, the Department of Health, Government Office South West, the South West of England Regional Development Agency and the Environment Agency.