Psychosocial risk factors of teenage pregnancy in eastern Taiwan.

Background: Teenage pregnancy is a growing worldwide problem, associated with adolescents' social and health problems and poor perinatal outcome. This study was conducted to investigate psychosocial factors predisposing to the high teenage pregnancy rate in Hualien, eastern Taiwan.

Methods: A regional hospital-based study was conducted with a retrospective analysis of hospital records and questionnaires to collect personal and family data regarding the perinatal outcome of 100 pregnant teenagers and 100 pregnant adults, who had normal deliveries at the Buddhist Tzu-Chi General Hospital between 1994 and 1995.

Results: A significantly higher percentage of teenage mothers were of aboriginal origin than adult mothers (63% vs 25%; p < 0.05) and lived in rural areas (80% vs 19%; p < 0.05). There was also a higher incidence of late antenatal care (31% vs 11%; p < 0.05) drinking (36% vs 9%; p < 0.05) and a greater history of smoking (34% vs 7%; p < 0.05) among teenage mothers. About 86% of teenage mothers did not use any contraception. The preterm birth rate was not significantly higher in the adult group, but teenage mothers tended to have significantly lower birth weight infants (19% vs 9%; p < 0.05) and a decreased incidence of cesarean section (19% vs 33%; p < 0.05). About 20% of the teenage mothers had their first coitus before the age of 13, while none of the adult mothers had sexual coitus before the age of 13.

Conclusions: In this hospital-based study, teenage mothers tended to be of aboriginal origin, lived in rural areas, had early sexual exposure without contraception, had drinking and smoking habits, were late seeking antenatal care and gave birth to low birth weight infants.