Adolescent Motherhood and Negative Birth Outcomes, Stunting and Social Determinants: Secondary Analysis of Turkish National Data 2018

Abstract Background: The aim of this study is to compare the frequency of the negative birth outcomes and the stunting under the age of five in children of adolescent and non-adolescent mothers, also to determine the relation of sociodemographic factors based on the national data of the Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS). Methods: This cross-sectional study includes secondary analysis of the TDHS 2018. The logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the differences in term low birthweight and stunting rates of children based on adolescent motherhood and sociodemographic factors. Analysis was carried out on a sample of 2755 women aged 15-49 years who gave a live birth in 5 years. In this context, 2,638 women with child birthweight and birth week data and 2,102 women with child height data were included. Results: Adolescent ratio of the mothers in the study group is 6.8%. Term low birth as a negative birth outcome and stunting as an indicator of chronic malnutrition were significantly higher in children of adolescent mothers compared to children of non-adolescent mothers (p<0.05). In multivariate analysis, it was found that being an uneducated mother (AOR 1.75, 95% CI 1.22, 2.50), being very poor/poor (AOR 2.09, 95% CI 1.44, 3.02) and living in the east (AOR 1.39 95% CI 1.44, 3.02) increase the risk of delivering a term low birthweight baby. The risk of being stunted is 2.22 times more (95% CI 1.47, 3.50) in the very poor/poor welfare status, 2.86 times more (95% CI 1.90, 4.30) in child born with low birthweight. Conclusions: Utilizing a large sample from TDHS, our findings emphasize the necessity of planning of maternal and child health service by considering the education levels of women, income inequalities and even regional inequalities while defining the risk factors related to adolescent pregnancy. These results further support the idea of the macro environmental factors have a remarkable impact on the mother and child health.