Abstract

Introduction: In sub-Saharan Africa, the adolescent fertility rate is reported at 104 births per 1000 women aged 15–19, with a missed estimations for young adolescents 10-14 years. Although there have been several studies on adolescent fertility in sub Saharan Africa, limited studies have focused on synthesizing available evidence of correlates of adolescent fertility, to inform policies and programs for adolescent. This paper is a systematic synthesis of available evidence on correlates of fertility among adolescents 10-19 years in sub-Saharan Africa.
Methods: We searched PUBMED, JOSTR, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online (AJOL) for studies published in peer reviewed journals from 2015-2022. Search terms used were “Adolescent fertility OR adolescent pregnancy OR teen pregnancy OR children ever born among adolescents AND sub Saharan Africa”. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was applied. Sixty three articles were included in the analysis. Synthesis of the different extracted studies was guided a pre conceptualized framework.
Results: Cultural practices and taboos, child marriages, lack of parent child sexual communication on sexual matters, socio economic factors like poverty and adolescent individual factors like low self-esteem were consistently cited as key correlates of adolescent fertility.
Conclusion: The systematic synthesis findings present aggregated results of correlates of adolescent fertility. This provides reliable evidence for policy and programming for adolescents in Sub Saharan Africa. Adolescent fertility interventions should deliberately include very young adolescents as evidence suggests that these have been left out.