CommentaryWHO Guidelines on Preventing Early Pregnancy and Poor Reproductive Outcomes Among Adolescents in Developing Countries
Section snippets
The WHO Guidelines: Rationale and Methods
The new guidelines were developed according to WHO's Grading of Recommendations, Assessment Development and Evaluation process that includes a systematic review of the evidence that informs the formulation of recommendations by an expert panel [7], [8]. Earlier policy and programmatic guidelines on adolescent pregnancy exist, but they tend to focus on single issues (e.g., preventing early marriage or providing sexuality education) rather than all the major determinants of adolescent pregnancy
Preventing early marriage
WHO's recommendation in this field are informed by 21 ungraded studies conducted in several LMICs [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31].
In some parts of world, girls are expected to marry and begin child-bearing in their early or middle teenage years. Parents feel pressured by prevailing norms, traditions, and economic constraints. The most important way of addressing this is keeping girls in school. Many
Discussion: Challenges and Opportunities
The development of the WHO's guidelines focusing on LMICs was a challenge because of the limited evidence of effective interventions in important areas. As recently stated in The Lancet series on adolescent health, “…enhancing the research capacity of investigators in low-income and middle income countries is crucial if these regions are to develop effective evidence-based policies and programs to ensure the wellbeing of their young people” [75]. The huge heterogeneity of the demographic,
Acknowledgments
WHO's Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health led the development of the WHO Guidelines. The guidelines were developed in conjunction with the Guttmacher Institute, the International Centre for Research on Women, FHI 360, the Population Council, and Centro Rosarino de Estudios Perinatales (Argentina). Their development was supported financially by the United Nation Population Fund, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the International Planned Parenthood
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