Maternity and paternity in the Pelotas birth cohort from 1982 to 2004-5, Southern Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of maternity and paternity among subjects and its association with perinatal, socioeconomic and demographic variables. METHODS: The participants were youth, aged 23, on the average, accompanied in a cohort study since they were born, in 1982, in Pelotas (Southern Brazil) and interviewed in 2004-5. Those who were considered eligible referred having had one or more children, whether these were liveborns or stillborns. Data was collected on reproductive health as well as socioeconomic and demographic information, by means of two different instruments. The independent variables were sex and skin color, family income in 1982 and in 2004-5, changes in income, birth weight and educational level when aged 23 years old. Crude and adjusted analysis were conducted by means of Poisson regression so as to investigate the effects of the independent variables on maternity/paternity during adolescence. RESULTS: Among the 4,297 youth interviewed, 1,373 (32%) were parents and 842 (19.6%) of these had experienced maternity/paternity during their adolescence. Planned pregnancy of the first child was directly related to the youth's age. Socioeconomic variables were inversely related to the occurrence of maternity/paternity during adolescence. The probability of being an adolescent mother was higher among black and mixed skin colored women, but skin color was not associated to adolescent paternity. CONCLUSIONS: There was a strong relation between adolescent maternity/paternity and socioeconomic conditions, which should be taken into consideration when delineating preventive actions in the field of public health.