Teenage pregnancy data toolkit

South West Public Health Observatory

Appendix 2
Teenage pregnancy data toolkit: a guide to local and national data

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The United Kingdom has the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe. Against the trend of falling rates in the United States and most of Western Europe, the problem has continued to escalate in this country. Although for many teenagers pregnancy and motherhood are welcome experiences, this group is more at risk of experiencing negative outcomes associated with pregnancy than women aged 20 to 35. Teenage pregnancy is an important public health issue, which may have adverse health and social consequences for the mothers, their babies and families. The Government has produced an action plan aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy levels and encouraging more teenage parents into education or employment, to reduce their risk of long term social exclusion. ¹

Background

The toolkit is part of a wider piece of work undertaken by the South West Public Health Observatory on Teenage Pregnancy. ² This toolkit is reproduced separately for ease of use, particularly for local teenage pregnancy co-ordinators and others involved in managing similar work.

The main aims of the project were

	To undertake a profile of teenage pregnancy across the region
	To provide support to local teenage pregnancy co-ordinators on data issues
	To encourage a consistent approach to the use of teenage pregnancy data at a local level.

The toolkit:

	Provides a guide to the local and national data which is generally available and relevant to teenage pregnancy. It includes data on conceptions, terminations, health services, social exclusion and general surveys.
	Builds on the guide to sexual health data produced by Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) and the HEA in March 2000. ³
	Has been developed with the support of local and national data experts from a range of agencies including the Office for National Statistics, the Department of Health and PHLS.

Considerations in use of data

Infrequent events, such as teenage conceptions fluctuate from year to year. This is of particular importance when considering data at ward level where large variations may occur due to chance.

Issues of confidentiality override all other considerations in the use of sensitive patient data. This results in the suppression of data where there are two or fewer conceptions in a ward. Although the number of unattributed conceptions can be deduced by subtraction from the District total, the data at ward level may appear to under-represent the distribution of conceptions. This is a particular problem in rural wards with small populations .

Further information and support

An updated version of the toolkit will be published on the Observatory website.

The South West Public Health Observatory is keen to support you in the use of the toolkit. If you would like further advice on its use or require further copies please contact the Observatory:

Telephone:
Email: or

Further information about the work of the observatory and the full report on teenage pregnancy may also be found on this website.

Address for correspondence :

The South West Public Health Observatory
Avon Health Authority
King Square House
King Square

References

Social Exclusion Unit. Teenage Pregnancy. London: Stationery Office. June 1999.
Duffell E. Teenage pregnancy in the South West of England (1992-1998). South West Public Health Observatory, Bristol 2001
Simms I, Nicoll. A sexual health in England: a guide to national and local surveillance and monitoring data 2000
Clements S, Diamond I, Ingham R, Stone N. Modelling variations in rates of teenage conceptions in the South and West Region; final report. Centre for Sexual Health Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southampton, December 1999

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