Survival of triplets who are born to teen mothers in the United States.

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to assess survival among triplets who are born to teen mothers and to determine whether fetal number influences the mortality rates of the offspring of teen mothers when compared with the offspring of older women. A retrospective cohort study of 354 triplet births to teenage mothers and 6858 to young mature mothers (20-29 years) who were delivered from 1995 through 1998. We compared the occurrence of stillbirth and neonatal and infant mortality rates between the 2 categories by means of the generalized estimating equation. Similar analyses were conducted for singleton pregnancies and twin pregnancies. Triplets of teenage mothers experienced a higher level of stillbirth (odds ratio, 3.24; 95% CI, 1.44-7.24), neonatal mortality (odds ratio, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.11-3.61), and infant death (odds ratio, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.01-2.87). Moreover, as the plurality increased from singleton infant to triplet, the offspring of teenagers fared progressively worse ( P < .0001). This study confirms the association between teenage motherhood and feto-infant death and indicates that this mortality relationship varies in a dose-dependent fashion.