Background: Adolescent mothers (10–19 years) form a vulnerable group implicated in yearly child bearing worldwide. The consequences surrounding teenage motherhood is a crucial public health concern. Teenage mothers face numerous challenges with direct consequences on their mental health outcome, anxiety disorder being considered to be among the most disabling conditions. Such situation can be magnified in conflict zones, thus the rationale backing this study. Objective: To determine the prevalence and determinants of anxiety disorder among teenage mothers in Limbe and Buea Health Districts. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was used and teenage mothers were sampled using cluster sampling for recruitment of participants, supported by the snow-ball technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire adapted from the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) evaluation tool. Data were analysed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 following the standard scoring guide. Prevalence of anxiety disorder was estimated using frequency and proportion and the 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Logistic Regression models depicted the significant and critical predictors / determinants of anxiety disorder. Findings: Cumulatively, roughly half of the teenage mothers (51.5%) had moderate or severe anxiety disorder. The significant (P<0.05) determinants of anxiety following binary association were number of children whereby teenage mother with more children were more susceptible to anxiety, marital status as the single were significantly more exposed, person living with as those living alone were significantly more at risk, location as the more inadequate it was, the higher the exposure, then depression as the depressed were more exposed. Based on Binary Logistic Regression, after controlling the predictors for each other, the significant (P<0.05) determinants of anxiety disorder were health district, residence before the crisis, the dominant ethnic in the hosting community and depression. As for the critical predictors (P<0.05; OR >1 and LB-OR>1) they were dominant ethnic in the hosting community, person living with and depression.
Anxiety disorder, Conflict zones, Determinants, Fako, Prevalence, Teenage mothers
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