Teenage mothering, admission to hospital, and accidents during the first 5 years.

Abstract

SUMMARY One thousand and thirty-one singleton children of teenage mothers were compared with 10 950 singleton children of older mothers in a national longitudinal cohort study. Childien born to teenage mothers and living with them during the first 5 years were more liable to hospital admissions, especially after accidents and for gastroenteritis, than were children born to and living with older mothers. Frequent accidents, poisoning, burns, and superficial injuries or lacerations were more often reported by teenage mothers. The association of teenage mothering with greater likelihood that children would have accidents or be admitted to hospital remained highly significant even after controlling for social and biological confounding influences. Although in part a marker for adverse socioeconomic circumstances, low maternal age appears to be a health hazard for children.Teenage pregnancy has been associated with a variety of problems including increased risk of anaemia, toxaemia, urinary tract infection, uterine dysfunction, cephalo-pelvic disproportion, abruptio placentae in the mother, and preterm delivery and low birthweight in the child together with high rates of fetal, perinatal, and maternal mortality.1-3Disadvantage continues for the child after birth.Infant mortality is higher than average4 and the children of young mothers have been shown to suffer more physical, emotional, and intellectual handicaps than do others.5 They are also liable to poorer educational attainment6 and behavioural disturbances.7

Teenage Mothering: Child Development at Five Years

“…Also, teenage mothers are likely to be comparatively poor and to live in disadvantaged social circumstances (Clark, 1971;Nix, 1980;Taylor et al, 1983). It is possible that the demonstrated unfavourable outcomes reflect the family social disadvantage and not the maternal age.…”

Unintentional injury: A major health problem for young children and youth

“…More active children and especially boys were at higher risk of injury, as were children who had previously been injured (Bijur, Stewart, Brown, & Butler, 1986;Eminson et al, 1986;Langley & Silva, 1982;Langley, Silva, & Williams, 1983;Taylor, Wadsworth, & Butler, 1983).…”

Premature Infants Born to Adolescent Mothers: Health Care Utilization After Initial Discharge

“…AMONG TERM INFANTS, young maternal age has been associated with increased rehospitalizations [1][2][3][4][5] and increased emergency department (ED) visits, 3,6,7 but the impact of young maternal age on acute care utilization among premature infants is not known. Premature infants in general have increased rates of rehospitalization after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] but little has been described about postdischarge health care use when these premature infants are born to adolescent mothers.…”