A comparative study of adolescent and adult new acceptors of family planning at
a family health clinic of a primary care project in Lagos over an eleven-year
period, showed only 0.8% of acceptors to be adolescents :( 19 years. It found a
statistically significant smaller proportion of older adolescents than adults
without education, but a greater proportion of adolescents with at least
secondary school education. Significantly fewer adolescents were in polygamous
unions or in professional occupations. The gravidity, parity, and number of
children alive was expectably lower among the adolescent acceptors.
More adolescent acceptors had previously practised abstinence as a means of
contraception. The two most common methods accepted at the clinic by both
groups was the IUD and the pill, but none of the adolescents contemplated
stopping childbearing. The implications of the findings for family planning
services for adolescents are discussed.