Socio-clinical factors related to the perinatal outcome of teenage pregnancies in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: The incidence of teenage pregnancies is rising in most parts of the world. This is associated with a wide spectrum of complications in the teenage mothers and their infants. Objective: To determine the social and clinical factors related to perinatal outcome of teenage pregnancies. Methods: A retrospective study of mothers aged < 20years managed at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu between 2008 and 2011 was done. Mothers aged 20 years and above were used as controls and comparisons were made using bivariate analysis. Results: The prevalence of teenage pregnancies was 1.3%. The mean age of the cases was 17.8 years (range of 16 - 19 years). Compared to the controls, significantly higher proportions of the cases had less than senior secondary education, were unmarried, with relatively younger spouses who were mainly unemployed or employed as unskilled workers. In addition, teenage mothers were significantly more likely to have preterm deliveries and babies with 1-minute Apgar scores <7. Stillbirth rate, early neonatal mortality rate and hospitalization rate were also higher among the cases. Poor perinatal outcome was more common among the cases in the lower socio-economic classes and those with low education. Conclusion: Socio-economic factors are directly or indirectly related to poor outcomes of teenage pregnancies.

Keywords

• perinatal mortality
• socio-economic factors
• stillbirth
• teenage pregnancy