The lack of contraceptive use led to a stunt growth in the risk of teenage pregnancy among Palawan adolescents, a statistical report by iOptions Venture Corporation reported, in the light of the 2018 Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM).
The report also concluded that amongst MIMAROPA Region, Palawan has the highest number of teenage pregnancies, which greatly affected the country’s rose of 42% of unintended birthrate cases during the pandemic.
The survey was principally spearheaded by iOptions Venture Corp., a known research institute situated in the National Capital Region (NCR). For over a decade, the company ventured into finance, research, real estate, hospitality, and film industry.
The survey, practically of convenience sampling delivered through an online survey was separated into three core parts namely, Reproductive Health (RH) awareness, which tested the respondent’s information on reproductive health and sexual health; the RH experiences, which accounted into the respondents’ sexual experiences; and RH education, which inquired respondents for their viewpoint on reproductive health education in relative to their school prospectus.
The survey, which was conducted online from May 23-31, 2021 reached a total of 9,142 Palaweño teens with chief factors and hypothesis concluded that respondents fared poorly when it comes to questions about contraception, lack of proper information on sexuality and gender.
The surveyors found a significant increase in Palaweño adolescents getting pregnant during their high school period and a decline in contraceptive usage resulting in unintended pregnancy.
iOptions Venture Corp., also summarizes that 89% of total respondents report that they have not had sexual intercourse, frequency of contraception usage for both Junior High School and Senior High School is consistent at 46%, 40% of total respondents have/had a classmate who got pregnant, 34% have/had a classmate who got someone pregnant, 79% express belief in the benefits of teaching reproductive health and sexual health in school, 63% think that reproductive and sexual health should be treated as its own subject, over half of the total respondents express that they are comfortable with the idea of learning about reproductive and sexual health in school while 63% believe that existing curriculum provided sufficient knowledge about the topic and outside of school, respondents get information about the topic from social media/internet.
During the online survey, respondents were asked to answer a 20-question quiz on reproductive and sexual health. Overall, 72% scored within the range of 8-134 points, which translates to a “medium” level of awareness on the topic. The scores are consistent in both urban and rural areas in the province.
Meanwhile, teenage pregnancy amplifies an extra challenge shouldered by the local health sector in the middle of the pandemic. The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWD) and Provincial Health Office (PHO) together with LGUs headed by their own Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officers and various NGOs such as Roots of Health, and other private sector are continuously putting an effort to stunt the expanding cases of unintended teen pregnancies.
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