In public-health win, number of Alaska teen births hits record low

The number of Alaska teens giving birth has reached a record low, according to a new analysis from the Alaska Division of Public Health.

In a bulletin dated May 3 and published by the Alaska Section of Epidemiology, the division reported 27.8 teen births for every 1,000 Alaska girls between ages 15 and 19. The figure is based on data from 2014, the latest year for which information is available.

From 2005 to 2014, the state’s fertility rate rose 6.1 percent while the teen birth rate declined 30.7 percent.

The report was compiled by public health experts Katie Reilly, Abigail Newby-Kew and Mollie Rosier.

Alaska’s teen birth rate is the lowest since at least 1980, when the state’s records begin. The 49th state’s decline mirrors a similar fall nationwide. The U.S. teen birth rate of 24.2 births per 1,000 teen girls is the lowest since at least 1940, according to figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. It’s about 1/4 the rate of the peak year, 1957, when nearly 1 in 10 girls between ages 15 and 19 was giving birth.

“Nationally, this corresponds with less sexual activity and access to more and more effective contraceptives and more information about contraception,” said Rosier, manager of the child and adolescent health unit of the Division of Public Health.

Data collected by the annual Alaska Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Survey indicates teenage sexual activity is on the decline and use of contraceptives and condoms is on the rise.

Other factors might also be in play. In 2011, the Pew Research Center published a study linking a decline in the American birth rate to the Great Recession. Americans were unable to afford children, so they stopped having as many of them, the study concluded. Alaska, which saw limited impact from the recession, saw teen pregnancy rates rise or stay flat in 2008 and 2009. They resumed falling in 2010.

In 2014, a study by the Brookings Institution suggested TV shows about teen pregnancy (such as “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom”) were also deterring pregnancy among teens.

There’s an important caveat to the data about teen births, however. The data include births, not pregnancies. Stillbirths and abortions are not included in the new report.

Despite that, available figures show abortions are on the decline as well. (The number of stillbirths and naturally failed pregnancies have not been analyzed by the state.) The state’s latest report on Alaska abortions shows 152 for girls between 15 and 19 years old. That’s the lowest figure since the state began tracking abortions in 2003.

Teen births are dropping across all state regions and ages. In Southeast Alaska, the rate of teen births dropped from 29.1 per 1,000 teen girls in 2008 to 23.0 per 1,000 in 2014.

Northern Alaska, which had 108.5 births per 1,000 teen girls and Alaska’s highest rate — more than 10 percent of the North Slope’s teen girls were giving birth — saw its rate decline to 63.3 per 1,000 in 2014.

Teen births have been linked to high health, social and economic costs for parents and the communities that may have to cope with the cost of helping parents unready to care for a child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Division of Public Health, have named teen pregnancy one of the “winnable battles” in public health, and the CDC is already ahead of its goals in fighting teen pregnancy nationally.

Despite the success, Rosier said Alaskans shouldn’t get too comfortable with the drop thus far. She said continuing to deter teen pregnancy is a community concern.

“Our thought is everybody has a role in addressing it,” she said. “It isn’t always a welcome topic in schools; parents have a hard time having these conversations, but these are really important conversations to have.”

• Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.