Adverse neonatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancy in Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Adolescents have physical, social and psychological characteristics that are different from adults. Adolescent pregnancy results in pregnancy and childbirth complications- an area neglected in developing countries like Ethiopia. This study, therefore, was conducted to assess the adverse neonatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancy in Northwest Ethiopia. Methods Institutional-based study was conducted in East Gojjam zone, Northwest Ethiopia. A total of 374 adolescent (15–19 years) and 760 adult (20–34 years) women were included in this study. Data were collected among women who came to randomly selected health facilities in East Gojjam zone. Data were collected by trained research assistants using a structured data collection questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and Student's t-tests were utilized. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed to adjust for confounding factors of adverse neonatal outcomes. Statistical significance was declared when the p-value was less than 0.05. Results Higher proportion of adolescent than adult women were from rural area (57.2% vs 44.7%), were not married (5.1% vs 1.7%), were pregnant for the first time (91.7% vs 34.1%), didn’t attend antenatal care (ANC) follow-up (12% vs 4.5%), and had late initiation of ANC follow-up. After adjusting for known confounding factors, the odds of low birth weight (LBW) was higher among adolescents than adult women (AOR 2.14; 95% CI, 1.36, 3.36, p-value = 0 . 001 ). Similarly, the odds of preterm birth was higher among adolescents than adult women (AOR 1.65; 95% CI, 1.09, 2.49, p-value = 0 . 017 ). There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of low Apgar score at first and five minutes after birth and neonatal Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission between babies born from adolescent and adult women. Conclusions Adolescent women were less likely to receive ANC service. Babies born from adolescent women are at higher odds of adverse neonatal outcomes like LBW and preterm birth than babies born from adult women. Use of community- and health facility-based intervention programs that can prevent adolescent pregnancy and reduce adverse neonatal outcomes among adolescent girls is recommended.

The adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancy: a cross sectional study in Hebei, China

“…Consistent with several previous studies worldwide [1,2,13,14,[24][25][26], our study showed that, compared with the adult pregnant women (aged 20-34 years), the adolescent pregnant women had significantly lower level of education, less numbers of prenatal care, and higher single-hood rate. Our data showed that there were more adolescent pregnant women that delivered in provincial and municipal hospitals than adult pregnant women, and those adolescent women that delivered at home were 2-3 times more of the adult group.…”

“…In rural Cameroon, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 20.4% from 2009 to 2016 [13]. In Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 13% in 2016 [14]. In UK, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 19.4% [15] from 1950 to 2010.…”

The adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancy: a cross sectional study in Hebei, China

“…Consistent with several previous studies worldwide [1,2,13,14,[24][25][26], our study showed that, compared with the adult pregnant women (aged 20-34 years), the adolescent pregnant women had significantly lower level of education, less numbers of prenatal care, and higher single-hood rate. Our data showed that there were more adolescent pregnant women that delivered in provincial and municipal hospitals than adult pregnant women, and those adolescent women that delivered at home were 2-3 times more of the adult group.…”

“…In rural Cameroon, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 20.4% from 2009 to 2016 [13]. In Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 13% in 2016 [14]. In UK, the adolescent pregnancy rate was 19.4% Adolescent pregnant women (aged 10-19 years) were 4125 (1.4%), adult pregnant women (aged 20-34 years) were 250,522 (86.4%), pregnant women of advanced maternal age (≥35 years old) were 27,140 (9.4%), and pregnant women with missing data of age were 8108 (2.8%).…”

Premarital sexual practice and its associated factors in Ethiopia. A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In Ethiopia, the median age at rst sexual intercourse is 0.5 years earlier than the median age at rst marriage, which also indicates that both women and men engage in sex before marriage. Conversely, this increases the incidence of morbidity and mortality for both the mother and the child as a result of teenage pregnancy [1,13,14]. Giving birth during adolescence is known to have adverse social consequences in particular of poor educational attainment and early drop out of school [1,8,12,15].…”