Contribution of psychoactive substance use and other environmental factors to adolescent pregnancies in Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: Mexico has the highest prevalence of adolescent pregnancies among all the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with a fertility rate of 70.6 births for every 1000 women aged 15–19 years. This study explored the associations between psychoactive substance use and adolescent pregnancy in 3263 adolescents. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2018. We examined adolescent pregnancy among a sample of currently pregnant, ever pregnant and never pregnant teenage girls. The prevalence of psychoactive substance use was estimated at the state level using the 2016 National Survey of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use. Multilevel logistic models were fitted to evaluate the association between psychoactive substance use and adolescent pregnancy. Results: Girls living in states with high prevalence of illegal drug use, non-prescription use of medical drugs, alcohol abuse and daily tobacco use had higher odds of having adolescent pregnancy (OR=1.22, 95% CI: 1.17–1.27; OR=2.00, 95% CI: 1.66–2.39; OR=1.10, 95% CI: 1.03–1.13; and OR=1.05, 95% CI: 1.03–1.18, respectively). Finally, adolescent pregnancy was positively associated with population density (OR=0.85, 95% CI: 0.82–0.88) and number of homicides (OR=1.08, 95% CI: 1.03–1.13). Conclusions: The exposure of adolescents to psychoactive substances may directly contribute to having a pregnancy. Also, these findings highlight the importance of attending school, having high school education and being beneficiaries of the social program CCT-POP in reducing adolescent fertility rates.