Abstract
Background: Adolescent pregnancy is an important health issue. Preventive programs usually focus on repeated pregnancy prevention, ignoring adolescents at high risk of first time pregnancy.
Aims: To analyze if socio-economic status, family type and adolescents' mothers' age at their first pregnancy behave as risk factors and to design a score to assess the risk for first time adolescent pregnancy.
Methods: A case-control study was performed: cases were primiparous adolescents, controls were primiparous adult women. Participants were asked about family structure and socio-economic status during adolescence and their mother's age at first pregnancy. Odds Ratio (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. A first time adolescent pregnancy risk score was designed based on a multiple logistic regression model.
Results: A total of 66 adolescent and 140 adults were interviewed. Belonging to a family other than nuclear or extended types was related to high probability of getting pregnant during adolescence (OR: 9.37; CI: 3.36-38.07). Low socio-economic status and having an adolescent mother didn't behave as risk factors when isolated (OR: 1.04; CI: 0.34-5.11 and OR: 1.13; CI: 0.42-4.32, respectively). They were only significant when simultaneously present (OR: 6.01; CI: 2.36-20.79). The presence of all these factors determined the highest adolescent pregnancy probability (OR: 10.49; CI: 3.43-51.00). A first time adolescent pregnancy risk assessment score was created, with an estimated sensitivity of 75.8% and specificity of 75.0%.
Conclusions: Adolescent pregnancy is associated with unfavourable precedents that can be used to identify adolescents at increased risk of early pregnancy.
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Santos, M., Rosário, F. 184 A Score for Assessing the Risk of Adolescent Pregnancy. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 96 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00184
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00184