ASSOCIATION OF PARENTAL CHARACTERISTICS WITH ADVERSE OUTCOMES OF ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY

Background. It is well-known that pregnancy in adolescence has an incr eased risk of adverse reproductive outcomes. It remains unclear whethe r this association is due mainly to the unfavourable sociodemographic status or due solely to biological immaturity of pregnant adolescents. Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of parental sociodemographic characteristics with the adverse outcome s of adolescent pregnancy. Method. Data from certificates of live birt hs in Taichung County, Taiwan in 1994 of 7994 singleton, first-born ba bies whose mothers were 15-34 years of age were analysed. The relative risk of having adverse pregnancy outcomes for adolescent subgroups wa s obtained as compared with that among mothers 20-34 years of age with the same characteristics. The adjusted relative risk of having advers e pregnancy outcomes for each covariate was calculated by a multiple l ogistic regression analysis. Results. Of 7994 babies born to mothers o f 15-34 years of age, 8.3% were born to adolescent mothers. In all age groups, the younger adolescent mothers (15-17 years of age) had the h ighest percentage of both infants with low birth weight (10.6%) and pr eterm births (7.1%). Younger adolescent mothers in almost all sociodem ographic categories had higher risks of having both low-birth-weight a nd preterm births than those of older adolescent mothers. Multiple log istic regression analysis showed that a younger maternal age is the on ly significant risk factor for having infants with low birth weight (a djusted RR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.8-4.5 and adjusted RR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.6 for younger and older adolescent mothers, respectively) or preterm bi rth (adjusted RR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.4 and adjusted RR = 1.5, 95% CI 1 .0-2.3 for younger and older adolescent mothers, respectively). Conclu sions. Adolescent pregnancy carries an increased risk of having low-bi rth-weight and preterm births, and a younger maternal age is causally implicated.