Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Mortality Among Twins Born to Unmarried Teenagers in the United States

Mortality Among Twins Born to Unmarried Teenagers in the United States Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the association between unmarried status and infant mortality among twins born to teenagers. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on twin live births to teenagers in the United States from 1995 through 1998 using the Vital Records assembled by the National Center for Health Statistics. We compared mortality estimates among twins of single to those of married mothers using the generalized estimating equation framework, which also adjusted for intracluster correlations. Results: Analysis involved 28592 individual twins of teenager mothers, with both cluster members being live-born. Out of these, 21.8% (n = 6238) were born to married and 78.2% (n = 22,354) to single mothers. Infant and postneonatal mortality was 17% and 36% higher among twins of single teenager mothers (odds ratio (OR) = 1.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01–1.40) and (OR = 1.36; 95% CI = 1.01–1.87), respectively. However, neonatal mortality was comparable (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 0.92–1.34). Twins of single mothers were also more likely to be of low birth weight, very low birth weight, preterm and very preterm (p < 0.0001) but had the same risk level for smallness for gestational age as compared to twins of married teenagers. Conclusions: Single motherhood was associated with increased infant mortality among twins born to teenagers. The critical time of elevated risk was the postneonatal period and the survival disadvantage of twins of single mothers was as a result of the higher-than-expected level of preterm rather than small for gestational age births. These findings have potential clinical and public health relevance. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Maternal and Child Health Journal Springer Journals

Mortality Among Twins Born to Unmarried Teenagers in the United States

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/mortality-among-twins-born-to-unmarried-teenagers-in-the-united-states-niITgGFw5e

References (31)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
Subject
Medicine & Public Health; Public Health; Sociology, general; Population Economics; Pediatrics; Gynecology; Maternal and Child Health
ISSN
1092-7875
eISSN
1573-6628
DOI
10.1007/s10995-005-0011-9
pmid
16328710
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the association between unmarried status and infant mortality among twins born to teenagers. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on twin live births to teenagers in the United States from 1995 through 1998 using the Vital Records assembled by the National Center for Health Statistics. We compared mortality estimates among twins of single to those of married mothers using the generalized estimating equation framework, which also adjusted for intracluster correlations. Results: Analysis involved 28592 individual twins of teenager mothers, with both cluster members being live-born. Out of these, 21.8% (n = 6238) were born to married and 78.2% (n = 22,354) to single mothers. Infant and postneonatal mortality was 17% and 36% higher among twins of single teenager mothers (odds ratio (OR) = 1.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01–1.40) and (OR = 1.36; 95% CI = 1.01–1.87), respectively. However, neonatal mortality was comparable (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 0.92–1.34). Twins of single mothers were also more likely to be of low birth weight, very low birth weight, preterm and very preterm (p < 0.0001) but had the same risk level for smallness for gestational age as compared to twins of married teenagers. Conclusions: Single motherhood was associated with increased infant mortality among twins born to teenagers. The critical time of elevated risk was the postneonatal period and the survival disadvantage of twins of single mothers was as a result of the higher-than-expected level of preterm rather than small for gestational age births. These findings have potential clinical and public health relevance.

Journal

Maternal and Child Health JournalSpringer Journals

Published: Nov 23, 2005

There are no references for this article.