• Mkwanazi Sibusiso.
• University of South Africa, Institute of Gender Studies.
• Afr Health Sci. 2023 Sep 1; 23 (3): 556955-69.

BackgroundWith the onset of the South African democracy in 1994 it was hoped that many social inequalities would be addressed urgently. However, studies have shown that service delivery inaccessibility remains a challenge and investigating the social implications of such injustices remains important.ObjectiveThis study determined to establish the association between service delivery inaccessibility and adolescent pregnancy in South Africa.MethodsUsing data from 2019 and 2021 general household surveys, 7 737 teenage females were included. The study applied descriptive statistics, chi-squared testing as well as multilevel binary logistic regression.ResultsRandom-intercept multilevel binary logistic regression revealed that the risk of adolescent pregnancy independently increased as the level of service inaccessibility increased at household level (no services: OR=1.73, 1 service: OR=1.40, 2 services: OR=1.28) and community level (medium: OR=1.22, high: OR=1.38) at a P-value of 0.05.ConclusionFindings highlight the need to guarantee universal service delivery urgently not only for development, but also to prevent adolescent pregnancy. Furthermore, the findings present evidence of structural factors driving adolescent pregnancy in South Africa, which renders continued cycles of poverty, injustice and early pregnancy amongst the majority of Blacks.© 2023 Sibusiso M.

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