title: The admission rate in neonatal intensive care units of newborns born to adolescent mothers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although the effect of adolescent pregnancy on perinatal mortality and morbidity is known, data on the neonatal hospitalization rate in these deliveries have not been reported. We aimed to assess the possible effects of adolescent pregnancies on the hospital outcomes of the newborns.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three hundred adolescent mothers under 17 years of age and their singleton newborns were enrolled in this retrospective study. The major outcomes of the study were the rates of prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation, and the admission rate of newborns to the neonatal intensive care unit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-nine percent of the newborns were premature, and the intrauterine growth retardation rate was 1%. Forty-one newborns (13.6%), of whom 38 (92.6%) were preterm, were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. The admission rate of the study population was higher than the overall newborn neonatal intensive care unit admission rate for our hospital of 9.7% (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rates of prematurity and neonatal intensive care unit admission were higher in adolescent mothers. This study is the first to demonstrate that the high NICU admission rate was related to premature deliveries in this group.
authors.affiliation: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Zekai Tahir Burak Maternity Teaching Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gonca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sandal
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Erdeve
authors.forename: Serife Suna
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Oguz
authors.forename: Nurdan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uras
authors.forename: Melek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akar
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dilmen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014421:Turkey