Comparison of pregnancy outcome between teenage and older primigravidae in Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, north-central Nigeria

Abstract

Background/Objective:
Teenage pregnancy constitutes a major health and social problem the world over. The objectives of the study were to determine the incidence of teenage pregnancy and to compare the socio-demographic characteristics, booking/delivery ratio and pregnancy outcomes of teenagers and the control in Jos University Teaching Hospital.

Method:
A prospective case-controlled study of the pregnancy outcome in 128 booked teenage primigravidae was compared with 633 older primigravidae aged 20-34 years (control group); who booked for antenatal care between January and December 2003 in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Jos was conducted.

Results:
The study showed teenage mothers to have significantly increased proportions of Hausa/Fulani ethnicity (p=0.0000), Muslim religion (p=0.0000), lower educational status (p=0.0000), lower income group (p<0.05), low birth weight babies (p = 0.031) and more likely to deliver outside of JUTH after booking (p = 0.036) compared to the control. There were no significant differences in the proportions of marital status (p = 0.06), first trimester booking (p = 0.68), preterm labour (p = 0.55), obstetric complications (p>0.05), obstetric interventions (p = 0.78), birth asphyxia (p = 1.00) and crude perinatal death rate (p = 0.21) compared to the control.

Conclusion:
This study has demonstrated that teenage pregnancy even though it predisposes to complications of pregnancy and labour, but when teenagers receive good antenatal care, pregnancy and labour outcome is comparable to that of other age groups.

Keywords:
Teenage pregnancy, primigravidae, booked

Annals of African Medicine Vol. 5(2) 2006: 101-106