Impact of an intervention nutrition program during prenatal on the weight of newborns from teenage mothers

Abstract

Introduction: The nutritional care for teenage mothers had been studied as a factor that influences the course of pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, especially in birth weight. Objective: Evaluate the effect of a prenatal intervention nutrition program, with early start of the nutritional care and individualized attendance on teenage mother newborns' weight. Methods: Not randomized study of intervention performed with 746 teenage mothers (14 to 19 years old), subdivided in historic control group (GI; n = 542) and intervention group (GII; n = 204). The dependent variable was the low birth weight (LBW). The independent variables assessed were: sociodemographic (mother age, skin color, instruction level and sanitation conditions), anthropometric (mother's height, pre-gestational nutritional study and adequacy of gestational weight gain), obstetric (gestational age in first prenatal consultation, number of pregnancies, childbirths and abortions, interdelivery and inter-gestational intervals), prenatal attendance (number of prenatal and nutritional attendance consultations) and conditions of the newborn (birth weight and duration of the pregnancy). Data were analyzed by Poisson regression with robust variance. Results: The average of maternal age at delivery was 17,5 years old (standard deviation 1,59). The percentage of LBW considerably reduced from 11,3% in GI to 2,9% in GII (p < 0,001). We observed in the multivariate model that the teenage mothers who have not received the intervention presented 3,5 more prevalence (GI, RP adjusted 3,5; 95% CI 1,49-8,44) to give birth to a low weight newborn. Conclusion: The participation of the teenage mother in the prenatal nutrition care program proposed here contributed to the reduction of the low weight of newborns.

Keywords

• Embarazo adolescente
• Recién nacido de bajo peso
• Nutrición prenatal
• Atención prenatal