[Pregnancy and delivery among adolescents under 15: a study of 181 cases in French Guiana].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study were to determine the effects and consequences of premature pregnancy and childbirth among adolescents under 15 years of age in French Guyana.


METHODS
A retrospective field-case study between the 1(st) and the 31(st) December 2001 identified 181 births among adolescents aged 14 years and under. Comparisons were made with 181 births among 18-year-old first-time mothers taking place over the same period.


RESULTS
1.55% of all births in the maternity ward at St Laurent-du-Maroni Hospital involved adolescents under the age of 15. 24.6% of these young mothers were enrolled in secondary school, 21% were beneficiaries of the national social security health insurance and 61% of them were born outside Guyana. Pre-natal monitoring was less frequent among the group of teenage mothers, and preterm labor (0.04 < p < 0.05), anemia (0.02 < p < 0.03) and Chlamydiae trachomatis infections (0.03 < p < 0.04) are more frequent. There is no significant difference regarding high blood pressure, diabetes, or infectious diseases (except from Chlamydiae) or regarding labor and delivery. Mean birth weight was lower (p = 0.01) and the Apgar score was more often less than 7 at the first minute (p < 0.05) among newborn of teenage mothers.


CONCLUSIONS
While pregnancies among younger teenagers appear to indicate a higher level of associated medical problems, a more thorough pre-natal check-up program would certainly reduce the number of problem related cases. The extremely high proportion of teenage pregnancies in the West of French Guiana has become a major public health issue for the entire region.
Soula
O
O
Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Centre Hospitalier de l'Ouest Guyanais Franck Joly, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Guyane.
Carles
G
G
Largeaud
M
M
El Guindi
W
W
Montoya
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005616:French Guiana; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D007902:Length of Stay; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence; D011634:Public Health; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors