[INFOGRAPHIC] Teens and child birth: alarm bells ringing
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi recently released results from the 2016 SA Demographic & Health Survey.
POLOKWANE – Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi said teenage pregnancy was an issue across the continent. Motsoaledi has welcomed the survey, saying some of its key results prove that government intervention has worked, while also alerting government to issues that need to be addressed.
The study indicates that fertility in the country is on the decline, with the total fertility rate (TFR) for the three years preceding the survey being 2,6 children per woman. South Africans are still having unprotected sex‚ with multiple partners.
Motsoaledi said he was pleased to see from the survey results that smoking as a whole had decreased since 1998‚ pointing to the effectiveness of government’s anti-smoking policy.
In 2000, South Africa became one of the first countries in the world to ban smoking in public places through the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act.
Statistician-general Pali Lehola said they hoped to conduct the study every five years going forward.
The survey was conducted by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), together with the National Department of Health (NDoH) and Statistics South Africa (STATS SA) and focus on maternal and child health care, reproductive health services as well as services for common chronic diseases.
