Increased risk for low birthweight and preterm birth in teenage pregnancy

Objectives: Teenage pregnancies have been and continue to be a social problem. From official reports, about 5% of births belong to teenage (< 19 years old) mothers. This study compares the pregnancy results for teenage mothers with 20-24 year-old pregnant mothers. Methods: 'Computerized Medical Birth Registry, 1993-1995' was the main source of data. Data was gathered from hospitals including Veterans General Hospital, Mennuo Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital. Meanwhile, the social economic variables were collected from the patients records at these three hospitals. The maternal ages of 12-17, 18-19 and 20-24 years were selected and all subjects met the following criteria: gestational age above 24 weeks, birthweight above 500 g, singleton and the first parity. At total 871 births were included: 76 births with maternal age of 12-17 years, 220 births with maternal age of 18-19 years and 575 births with maternal age of 20-24 years. The statistical methods included 95% C.I. for (adjusted) odds ratio and logistic regression model. Results: When compared with subjects with maternal age of 20-24 years, the logistic regression models showed that: maternal age of 12-17, 18-19 years had odds ratio 2.63 (95% CI: 1.07-6.49), 2.28 (95% CI: 1.2-4.34) respectively for low birthweight while both education and location covariates included; maternal age of 12-17, 18-19 years had odds ratio 1.88 (95% CI: 0.89-3.95), 2.22 (95% CI: 1.38-3.56) respectively for preterm birth while both prenatal care and gender covariates included. Conclusions: Controlling for social-economic variables, teenage pregnancies had significantly higher risks for low birthweight or preterm births than mother 20-24 years old. Hence, very young age is an important risk factor for low birthweight or preterm birth.