Iran Journal of Nursing

  A Survey was conducted to correlate the out come in first pregnancies of different age groups attending a selected teaching hospital in Kerman for delivery during 1993.

  A total of 390 primigravida women took part in this study. 150 in each age group of below 20 and 20-29 years and 90 women in the age group of 30 or above.

  For data collection a check list and questionnaire consisting of two parts were employed. The first part covered demographic information of the subjects and the second part questioned the pregnancy out come in all age groups mentioned above.

  The findings are presented in 55 tables. Both descriptive and infernal statistics were used. To correlate variables like occupation, place of residence, level of education and prenatal care initiation with the outcome of pregnancy, X2 and Fisher tests were employed. To estimate differences in pregnancy outcome among primigravida women of different age groups with demographic variables Cochran test was employed.

  The findings show that the majority of the subjects falls in 15-19 years of age. They work, education level is secondary school and they started to attend prenatal care units during the first trimester of pregnancy. Although the pregnancy outcome has been with no complications for most of them, miscarriage, premature first and low birth weight deliveries were noticed in this group more than the other two, the 20-29 years age group encountered the least complications.

  The findings also revealed a significant correlation between undesirable outcome like r miscarriage and pre-term delivery with level of education and the time of prenatal Care initiation among the subjects below 20 years (P<0.05).

  With the omission of occupation, the difference between the variables mentioned above in two groups of below 20 and 20-29 years was also significant.

  With the omission of residence, again in the two age groups mentioned above low birth weight pattern was significantly different. The picture was the same (significantly different) for the two age groups of 20 and 29-30 and 30 or above as well.

  With the omission of education, a significant difference was obtained on premature deliveries and low birth weight deliveries in the two groups of below 20 and 20-29 years. The difference in low birth weight deliveries between the two age groups of 20-29 and 30 years or higher were also significant.

  With the omission of prenatal care initiation time, a significant difference was estimated between premature delivery among the age group below 20 and 20-29 years. Also the difference between low birth weight deliveries in the two groups of below 20 and 20-29 Years was significant.

  The same pattern was obtained for the age groups 20-29 and 30 years or above.

  In concussion, based on the findings, suggestions were made for further research, recommendations for implications of corrective measures in midwifery and other areas of health care were also made.