Teenage mothers in the Brazilian legal Amazon region and municipal indicators of income education and possession of computers and internet access

Teenage pregnancy is a public health issue due to the prevalence of complications for both the mother and child, and the Brazilian Legal Amazon has a high rate of teenage motherhood compared to other regions of the country. Among the strategies adopted by health managers, information communication technologies, when utilized in sexual education projects, can help in the dissemination of information on the use of contraceptives and other guidance for delaying pregnancy and reducing the chances of second pregnancies. We use the 2010 Brazilian Demographic Census, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, to compile data on (i) households with computers and Internet access and (ii) women classified by age group who had children. These data are analyzed along with municipal indicators on income and education. To understand this phenomenon at the municipality level, we use Bayesian networks to reveal dependencies among the variables studied. First, for municipalities in Brazilian Legal Amazon with the lowest percentage of households with computers and Internet access (<5.58%), there is a probability of 0.751 of finding a high incidence of teenage mothers (≥ 8.24%). The probability is 0.269 for the municipalities in other regions of the country. Second, if a municipality in Amazon has an indicator of municipal income less than 0.500, there is a probability of 0.762 that this municipality will present a high percentage of teenage mothers (≥ 8.24%), while this probability decreases to 0.286 when the municipality is in any other region. Based on the results of Bayesian networks, we discuss the association between teenage motherhood, region (Amazon, other), possession of computer and Internet access, and indicators of income and education in the municipalities. This study reveals the unequal conditions that health workers and managers can address in implementing projects using information communication technology in Amazon municipalities.