Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Health, Jimma University, P.O.Box 378, Jimma, Ethiopia.
Department of Food Technology, Safety and Health, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, B 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Nutr J. 2019 Apr 2;18(1):22. doi: 10.1186/s12937-019-0448-0.
Evidences indicate that the risk of linear growth faltering is higher among children born from young mothers. Although such findings have been documented in various studies, they mainly originate from cross-sectional data and demographic and health surveys which are not designed to capture the growth trajectories of the same group of children. This study aimed to assess the association between young maternal age and linear growth of infants using data from a birth cohort study in Ethiopia.
A total of 1423 mother-infant pairs, from a birth cohort study in rural Ethiopia were included in this study. They were followed for five time points, with three months interval until the infants were 12 months old. However, the analysis was based on 1378 subjects with at least one additional follow-up measurement to the baseline. A team of data collectors including nurses collected questionnaire based data and anthropometric measurements from the dyads. We fitted linear mixed-effects model with random intercept and random slope to determine associations of young maternal age and linear growth of infants over the follow-up period after adjusting for potential confounders.
Overall, 27.2% of the mothers were adolescents (15-19 years) and the mean ± SD age of the mothers was 20 ± 2 years. Infant Length for Age Z score (LAZ) at birth was negatively associated with maternal age of 15-19 years (β = - 0.24, P = 0.032). However, young maternal age had no significant association with linear growth of the infants over the follow-up time (P = 0.105). Linear growth of infants was associated positively with improved maternal education and iron-folate intake during pregnancy and negatively with infant illness (P < 0.05).
Young maternal age had a significant negative association with LAZ score of infants at birth while its association over time was not influential on their linear growth. The fact that wide spread socio economic and environmental inequalities exist among mothers of all ages may have contributed to the non-significant association between young maternal age and linear growth faltering of infants. This leaves an opportunity to develop comprehensive interventions targeting for the infants to attain optimal catch-up growth.
有证据表明，年轻母亲所生的儿童线性生长迟缓的风险更高。尽管在各种研究中已经记录了这些发现，但它们主要来源于横断面数据和人口与健康调查，这些数据并非专门用于捕捉同一组儿童的生长轨迹。本研究旨在使用埃塞俄比亚一项出生队列研究的数据评估年轻母亲年龄与婴儿线性生长之间的关系。
本研究共纳入 1423 对母婴，来自埃塞俄比亚农村的一项出生队列研究。他们在五个时间点进行了随访，每三个月一次，直到婴儿 12 个月大。然而，分析基于至少有一次额外随访测量到基线的 1378 名受试者。一个由护士组成的数据收集小组从母婴对中收集了基于问卷的数据和人体测量数据。我们拟合了线性混合效应模型，具有随机截距和随机斜率，以确定在调整潜在混杂因素后，年轻母亲年龄与婴儿在随访期间的线性生长之间的关联。
总体而言，27.2%的母亲为青少年（15-19 岁），母亲的平均年龄为 20±2 岁。婴儿出生时的年龄别身长 Z 评分（LAZ）与 15-19 岁母亲年龄呈负相关（β=-0.24，P=0.032）。然而，年轻母亲年龄与婴儿在随访期间的线性生长无显著关联（P=0.105）。婴儿线性生长与改善母亲教育和妊娠期间铁叶酸摄入呈正相关，与婴儿疾病呈负相关（P<0.05）。
年轻母亲年龄与婴儿出生时的 LAZ 评分呈显著负相关，而其随时间的关联对婴儿线性生长无影响。所有年龄段母亲之间广泛存在社会经济和环境不平等这一事实，可能导致年轻母亲年龄与婴儿线性生长迟缓之间无显著关联。这为针对婴儿实现最佳追赶生长的综合干预措施提供了机会。
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