Pregnancy outcomes in adolescents < or = 15 years old.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' purpose was to assess the occurrence of specific complications of adolescent < or = 15 years old in a tertiary hospital population.


METHODS
A retrospective study was conducted in a population of adolescents (age < or = 15 years) delivered at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2004. Subgroup analysis was also conducted according to the total number of antenatal visits. Group 1 had total antenatal visits less than four times during their gestation; group 2 had total antenatal visits at least four times during their gestation.


RESULTS
During an 11-year study period, a total of 340 adolescent pregnancies aged < or = 15 years old, were delivered. The patients' mean age was 14.5 years, and their mean gestational age was 37.5 weeks. Most cases (95.6%) were nulliparous. 12.3% of the cases had no antenatal care. The newborns' mean birth weight was 2819.2 g. Cesarean section rate was 12.1%. The most frequent obstetric complications were: anemia (22.6%), preterm delivery (16.5%), preeclampsia (7.4%), and small for gestational age infants (4.4%). Preterm delivery was the only obstetric complication that was significantly different between the two groups (22.1% in group 1 versus 12.0% in group 2, p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Pregnancy in adolescents < or = 15 years poses many obstetric complications. These complications are reduced when they have a total antenatal care visit at least four times during their gestations. This information can be used to counsel adolescents who are pregnant to be concerned about their antenatal care.
Suebnukarn
Keng
K
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Rama IV Rd, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Phupong
Vorapong
V
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence