Public policies and their association with adolescent pregnancy in Southern Peru

This study analyzed the association between public policies on adolescent pregnancy in a healthcare network in southern Peru, considering their alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 4, and 5, which focus on health, education, and gender equality. The research was basic in nature, with a correlational quantitative approach and a non-experimental cross-sectional design. A structured survey with closed-ended Likert-scale questions was administered to 80 obstetrics professionals, selected through non-probabilistic convenience sampling. Instrument validity was established through expert judgment, and reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, obtaining a value of 0.83, which indicated high internal consistency. The results obtained via ordinal logistic regression revealed that public policies were significantly associated with adolescent pregnancy (p = 0.000), with a Nagelkerke determination coefficient of 0.737, indicating that approximately 73.7% of the variance in adolescent pregnancy was associated with the level of policy implementation. It was concluded that public policies were linked to lower perceived levels of adolescent pregnancy in the healthcare network under study, recommending the optimization of sexual and reproductive health strategies to strengthen their implementation.