PURPOSE: to compare the incidence of preterm deliveries, and of low birth weight newborns, among primiparous adolescents, from two age groups. METHODS: this is a comparative, cross-sectional clinical study composed of 522 primiparous adolescents whose deliveries occurred at the gestational age of 25 to 42 weeks. The adolescents were divided into 2 groups according to their age; Gprec: from 10 to 15 complete years old (n=104); Gtard: from 16 to 19 complete years old (n=418). The research data were obtained by an individualized, confidential and ethical interview, soon after delivery; and by a written questionnaire with questions about the gestational age in complete weeks, and about the newborns birth weight. The gestational age was calculated at the delivery day, according to the date of the last trustworthy menstrual period, being also confirmed by the earliest pregnancy scanning or by Capurro's index, when there were any doubts about the previously described parameters. All newborns with gestational age under 37 weeks at birth were considered preterm babies. The newborn weight was taken by neonatologists immediately after delivery; all newborns with less than 2,500g were considered to be low weight babies. Thus, we compared prematurity rate and low birth weight among newborns from primiparous puerperal adolescents. The chi² test was used for the statistic analysis and the partition chi² test for the found differences. As the significancy level was 0.05 (alpha =5%), lower levels than that were considered significant. RESULTS: the prematurity rate was not significantly different between the two groups (5.8 and 2.6%). The incidence of low birth weight in Gprec (13.5%) was significantly higher than in Gtard (3.1%). CONCLUSIONS: the group with primiparous adolescents under 15 years old showed a significantly higher risk of low birth weight newborns. However, a statistically significant incidence of prematurity between the groups studied was not verified.
Pregnancy in adolescence; Infant, premature; Low weight newborn
