Assessing potential game-changing interventions to reduce adolescent pregnancy in Africa and Latin America: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Introduction: Adolescent health remains a significant public health concern in Africa and Latin America, resulting in adverse consequences for young women’s health, education, and socioeconomic empowerment. This review aimed to identify potential interventions and their effects on reducing adolescent pregnancy. Methods: The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used to conduct the review. We searched electronic databases for studies published between 2014 and 2024. We included interventional studies evaluating adolescent pregnancy. Two authors extracted data and assessed study quality using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The primaryoutcomes were adolescent pregnancy and meta-analysis sub grouped outcomes into economic, educational, health, and combined interventions employing a Mantel-Hazel method and inverse variance method using Stata software. A risk ratio (RR) was obtained viathe random effect module among the subgroups. PROSPERO registered the study under ID: Reg. CRD42022369044. Results: Our search yielded 8,175 studies, 13 of which met theinclusion criteria. Meta-analysis revealed the following outcomes. Socioeconomic interventions RR 1.0153 (95% CI 0.9267; 1.1125, P value=0.7441), educational interventions RR 0.8476 (95% CI 0.5998; 1.1980, P value=0.3490), health interventions RR 1.0614 (95% CI 0.9908; 1.1369, P value=0.0895), and combined interventions RR 0.9880 (95% CI 0.8824; 1.1062, P value =0.8338). Subgroup analysis for African women revealed 18.2% odds of reducing adolescent pregnancy OR 0.8180 (95% CI 0.5696; 1.1746), and for Latin American women, 22.7% increased the risk of adolescent pregnancy from the interventions OR 1.2271 (0.7996; 1.8831). The subgroup analysis revealedno statistically significant findings, with a P value of 0.1563. Conclusion: The findings confirm a limited reduction in the rates of adolescent pregnancies by combined approaches in Africa compared with those inLatin America,despite overall results indicating no statistically significant effects from all interventions. Therefore, policymakers must prioritize programming for rigorous game changing interventional research in Africa and Latin America.