Once the highest in the state, Tooele County’s teen pregnancy rate has been reduced by two thirds since local health and school officials partnered in an abstinence-based education program.
Alarmed by a 1998 teen birth rate of 68 births per 1,000 girls age 15-19, the Tooele County Health Department applied for and received federal grants to fund programs aimed at reducing teen pregnancies.
The county’s teen birth rate of 68 per 1,000 was the highest teen birth rate among Utah’s counties at the time. It was more than one-and-a-half times the state average of 44 teen births per 1,000.
“Today, our teen birth rate has been reduced significantly,” said Wayne Lyman, family and school health supervisor with the Tooele County Health Department. “Unfortunately it still remains higher than the state average.”
In 2014 Tooele County’s teen birth rate dropped to 23 births per 1,000. That’s a 71 percent decline from the rate reported in 1998. The state average teen birth rate for 2014 was 19.4 per 1,000.
While still ahead of the state average, Tooele County’s 2014 teen birth rate ranked the twelfth highest among 24 Utah counties with a teen birth rate reported by the Utah Department of Health.
Among girls age 15-17, Tooele County’s birth rate of 6.9 births per 1,000 in 2014 was lower than the state rate of 7.9 per 1,000.
In the 18 -19 age group, Tooele County’s birth rate of 58.9 per 1,000 is higher than the state rate of 37.9 for 2014.
The teen pregnancy prevention program launched by the county in 1998 targeted schools, parents, the community, and the media with programs funded by federal dollars, according to Lyman.
Noting the success of the program that started in 1998, the county health department continues to receive funding through the Utah Department of Health for teen pregnancy prevention, Lyman said.
Using an abstinence-based program, health department nurses conduct maturation programs at the elementary level.
The health department staff also goes into eighth-grade health classes and discusses sexually transmitted infection prevention as well as decision-making skills and how to deal with peer pressure.
“We also talk about date rape, violence, and refusal skills,” Lyman said.
A state health department grant will be used to pay for a teen pregnancy prevention program offered for youth 14 -19 by the Tooele Boys and Girls Club, according to Lyman.
“All of the programs we use must be medically accurate and evidence based as effective,” he said.
The county health department also offers a program for current teen mothers that is aimed at reducing the incident of a second teen pregnancy.
Statistically the rate of a subsequent pregnancy among teen mothers is high, according to Lyman.
Along with the health department’s teen pregnancy prevention programs, Lyman also credits the health department’s Love with Logic parenting class and Tooele City’s Communities that Care Guiding Good Choices class as contributing to the drop in teen pregnancies.
“When it comes to parenting, knowledge is never bad,” Lyman said.