Pregnancy Outcomes Among Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adolescents in Gadarif, Eastern Sudan: A Case-Control Study

Adolescent pregnancy is considered a global public health problem that affects both developed and developing countries. While the obstetric and perinatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancies have been extensively studied, there is not much available data comparing the obstetric and perinatal outcomes of younger and older adolescents.

The objective of this study is to compare the obstetric and perinatal outcomes between two groups of adolescent pregnancy.

This unmatched case-control study was conducted at Gadarif Maternity Hospital in eastern Sudan. The cases (n = 141) were young/middle-aged adolescents (13-17 years), who were compared with older adolescents (18-19 years) as the controls (n = 159).

Compared with controls, cases had a lower level of education (78.0% vs. 62.3%; P = .003). There was no significant difference between the cases and controls in terms of antenatal follow-up (56.0% vs. 57.9%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.58-1.46), maternal anemia (46.8% vs. 39.0%; OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.45-1.15), preterm delivery (11.3% vs. 10.7%; OR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.45-1.92), a cesarean delivery (13.5% vs. 15.1%; OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 0.59-2.18), low birth weight (10.6% vs. 13.8%; OR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.36-1.49), neonatal intensive care unit admission (10.6% vs. 7.5%; OR = 1.45; 95% CI: 0.65-3.23), or neonatal deaths (5.0% vs. 5.0%; OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.34-2.79).

Young/middle-aged pregnant Sudanese adolescents are not at increased risk of obstetric and perinatal complications compared to older pregnant adolescents.