title: Comparison of perinatal and obstetrics outcomes among early adolescents, late adolescents and adult pregnant women from rural South Africa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescent pregnancies are known to be associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes. The objectives were to calculate the incidences of the obstetric and perinatal complications at the time of delivery of early adolescent and late adolescent mothers and then compare the same with adult pregnant mothers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective comparative study was conducted by targeting women delivered at Empangeni hospital. Mothers aged from 13-15 years were deemed as early adolescents, mothers aged from 16 - 18 years old were deemed as late adolescents and mothers aged from 19 - 21 years considered as adult pregnant mothers and were used as control groups in regards to perinatal and obstetric complications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anaemia in pregnancy was considerably high among the early adolescent pregnant mothers (23%) compared to older adolescent (15%) and adult pregnant mothers (14%). Other conditions such as pregnancy induced hypertension, eclampsia, and diabetes were not notably different among the groups. Early adolescents mothers were twice (OR = 2.022, 95% CI: 1.226 - 3.337) as likely to be anaemic during pregnancy compared to adult mothers. Low birth weight delivery, FSB and MSB rates among the groups were significantly different (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early adolescent pregnancies did not show any extra risks of obstetrics and pregnancy outcomes but socioeconomic problems may still exist. Thus to delay early conception with a view to let the young adolescent South African girls to improve their socioeconomic conditions appropriate strategies should be devised without any further delay.
authors.affiliation: Empangeni Hospital, KwaZulu-Natal, P O Box 2468, New Germany, South Africa. monjurul.hoque@kznhealth.gov.za
authors.forename: Monjurul
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoque
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoque
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018743:Perinatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult