A Comparitive Study of Pregnancy Outcomes between Pregnant Teenagers and Adults at Uthai Thani Hospital

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy may result in health problems for both the mother and the newborn. This retrospective  descriptive  research  aimed  to  study  the  situation  of  teenage  pregnancy  and  compare pregnancy  outcomes  between  teenage  and adult pregnant  women  who  gave birth  at  Uthai  Thani Hospital from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023. The sample was divided into two groups,including the group of 129 teenage pregnant women younger than or equal to 19 years and the group of 881 adult pregnant women aged 20-34 years. Data were collected from the data collection form of the Uthai Thani Provincial Public Health Office. They were composed of five parts, including 1)demographic data; 2 ) antenatal care history; 3 ) labor data; 4 ) complications during pregnancy,delivery, and after birth; and 5 ) data of newborns. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics,the chi-square test, and Fisher’s exact test. Regarding the comparison of pregnancy outcomes, it was found that there were statistically significant differences in pregnancy outcomes (p<.05) in that the pregnancy outcomes of teenage pregnant women were lower than those of adult pregnant women for the first antenatal care before 12 weeks of pregnancy, receiving 8 times of prenatal care according to quality criteria, cesarean section surgery, hypertension during pregnancy, and gestational diabetes. On the contrary, the pregnancy outcomes of teenage pregnant women were higher than those of adult pregnant  women  for syphilis  infection, normal  labor  and  delivery, premature  birth, and newborns weighing  less  than  2,500  grams.  Therefore, public  health  personnel  should  encourage teenage pregnant women  to  be  aware  of the  importance  of  continuous  prenatal  care starting  in  the  first trimester,  as  well  as  health  promotion, premature  labor  prevention, and  prevention  of  the complications of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis.