Teenage pregnancy increases risk of premature death – study

AntonLozovoy/Depositphotos

Women who became mothers in their teens are twice as likely to die before age 31. The trend is observed both among women who endured a teenage pregnancy and among those who experienced a miscarriage.

This is evidenced by the results of a large study conducted in Canada. His results published in JAMA Network Open, writes The New York Times.

“The younger a woman was when she became pregnant, the higher the risk of premature death.” said study author Joel G. Ray, an obstetrician and epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

The Ontario health insurance registry was used in the study. Scientists analyzed the pregnancy results of about 2.2 million girls who were 12 years old between April 1991 and March 2021.

In the course of the work, they took into account the health problems that the girls already had, as well as the difference in income and education. The results of the study proved: teenagers who carried a pregnancy to term were twice as likely to die prematurely later.

Similar chances were also found among women who had an ectopic pregnancy (a complication in which a fertilized egg grows outside the uterus) or a pregnancy that ended in stillbirth or miscarriage as a teenager.

The risk was significantly lower among women who had a teenage pregnancy termination. However, even among this category, the risk of premature death was still 40% higher than among those who were not pregnant.

Dr. Ray and his colleagues found that women who became pregnant before the age of 16 were most likely to die prematurely, and those who had multiple pregnancies in their teenage years.

Teenage pregnancy alone may not be the cause of premature mortality, says Elizabeth L. Cook, a research scientist at Child Trends, a research organization that focuses on children and youth. In her opinion, such a pregnancy can cause a number of other factors that can cause early death.

She called for more research to establish these causes.

“Most teenage pregnancies are unintended. And the stigma and isolation many pregnant teens face can make it difficult for them to thrive as adults.” – notes Elizabeth L. Cook.

The connection between teenage pregnancy and premature death has not been discovered for the first time. Yes, a 2017 Finnish study testified, that women who experience teenage pregnancy are more likely to die prematurely from suicide, alcohol-related causes, and cardiovascular disease. In this study, excessive risk is attributed to low educational attainment.