Adolescent Childbearing Age and Risk of Adverse Perinatal and Health Outcomes in South Asian Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Adolescent childbearing is a major public health problem worldwide especially in South Asian Countries. Adolescent pregnancy especially below 17 years of age has been considered to have a higher risk than adult pregnancy, because of biological immaturity of the teenager. In this study it is conduct the systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the adverse birth and health outcomes associated with adolescent pregnancy. Methods: We adopted the PRISMA consensus statement. PubMed database were searched on February 13, 2016. 24 studies were included, 10 studies go to the quantative synthesis and others go to narrative reviews. Meta –analysis was used to pool the result of the individual studies. Results: Adolescent pregnancy found to be significantly associated with higher risk of low birth weight (LBW), (OR, 1.50; 95% CI 1.27 – 1.78), preterm birth (PTB) (OR, 1.49;95% CI 1.15 – 1.93), small for gestational age (SGA) (OR, 1.33; 95% CI 1.13 – 1.56) and neonatal mortality (OR,1.45; 95% CI 1.20 – 1.76) . Lower risk of cesarean delivery (OR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.60 – 0.98) also reported among the adolescent mothers. Risk of perinatal mortality also found lower (OR, 0.80; 95% CI 0.42 – 1.51) among adolescent mothers, however, the risk was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The findings concluded that adolescence pregnancy increase the risk of LBW, PTB, SGA, neonatal mortality. The risk of cesarean delivery and perinatal mortality found lower among adolescent mothers. Increase awareness about the adverse effect of adolescent pregnancy outcomes may protective rules in adolescent marriage help to reduce such outcomes for the welfare of mother as well as children.