Principales factores de riesgo asociados a las gestantes adolescentes de la Comunidad Valenciana

Abstract

SUMMARY Objective: To study the main risk factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in the Valencian Community. Material and methods: A descriptive epidemiological analysis of the 104 pregnancies of 98 adolescents which occurred in a five year period (between June 1995 and May 2000) in the Marina Alta district, province of Alicante, of the Valencian Community. In order to know the risk factors associated with adolescent pregnancy, we studied tobacco and alcohol consumption, obesity, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and other diseases such as asthma, epilepsy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Results: 15 smoker were found (14.42%); 7 other patients (6.73%) smoked occasionally and 82 (78.84%) were non smokers. Up to 25 patients (24.03%) said they drank alcohol very occasionally and 79 patients (75.96%) did not drink alcohol. No cases of obesity, hypertension, or diabetes mellitus were found amongst the adolescent patients. Two patients suffered from asthma (1.92%) and another patient suffered from epilepsy (0.96%). We found two patients (1.92%) with hepatitis B positive markers, one of whom was HIV positive and one patient had vulvar condilomas removed. Conclusions: the percentage of adolescent smokers is lower, and the percentage of women who said they had drunk alcohol pregnancy is comparanle to that found in other samples of pregnant adolescents. INTRODUCCION La adolescencia, definida como transicion entre la infancia y la edad adulta, es un periodo critico. Muchos autores delimitan esta etapa de una forma imprecisa 1,2 , pero la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud (OMS) define a la adolescencia como la etapa comprendida entre los 10 y los 19 anos 3 .