Epidemiology of Adverse Outcomes in Teenage Pregnancy-A Northeastern Romanian Tertiary Referral Center

Background: Despite being a very well-documented subject in the literature, there are still conflicting results regarding teenage pregnancies and their fetal outcomes. Methods: We conducted a retrospective, comparative cohort study that included 1082 mothers aged less than 18 years, compared to 41,998 mothers aged over 18 years, who delivered in our tertiary referral center between January 2015 and December 2021. To check for significant differences between the two groups, the chi-qquared or Fisher's test for categorical variables were used. Results: We detected statistically significant higher rates of fetal malformation, premature birth, FGR and SGA fetal growth conditions, preeclampsia, condylomatosis and vaginal infection with E. coli in our cohort of teenagers. In this subpopulation of teenagers, the rate for premature birth at less than 32 weeks of gestation was 3.26-fold higher and 3.25-fold higher for condylomatosis, and these results referred to the cohort of adult patients (>18 years old) that gave birth in the same interval of time. Conclusions: Teenage pregnancies still remain a major health problem that burdens all countries worldwide regardless of their income. It needs solutions initially to prevent pregnancy in this young age segment and last but not least to improve both maternal and fetal outcomes.

Automated summary

Despite existing literature, there are conflicting results on teenage pregnancies and fetal outcomes. In a comparative cohort study, we found higher rates of fetal malformation, premature birth, growth conditions, preeclampsia, condylomatosis, and vaginal infection in teenage pregnancies compared to adult pregnancies. This highlights the importance of preventing teenage pregnancies and improving maternal and fetal outcomes.