High incidence of low birth weight children among adolescent mothers in Brazil

Humberto Corrêa, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Glaucia dos Santos Marcondes, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of Maternal Age (MA) in the overincidence of low weight observed in children delivered to adolescent mothers (10-19 years old) in comparison with the children of 20-29 year-old women. Information has been gathered from the Brazilian Newborn Information System (SINASC) related to the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Recife (2000-2002) regarding MA, Gestational Age (GA) and the number of Prenatal Appointments (PA). The age specific low birth weight rates were calculated and the prevalence ratios for each set of MA, GA and PA were compared. Results suggest that MA seems to play an intervenient role, yet not determinant, as to the occurrence of LW newborns from adolescents mothers. The MA-GA-PA combination seems to had a great impact on LBW due to exogenous adverse variables that prevailed in this group before pregnancy.