Peer-reviewed article
Growth failure among children of adolescent mothers at ages 0-5 and 6-12 years in India.
Arindam Nandi, Fatima Zahra, Karen Austrian, Nicole Haberland, Thoại D Ngô ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined growth outcomes in children born to adolescent mothers in India using data from two national surveys spanning 2004–2012. Children born to mothers aged 19 or younger were consistently shorter and lighter than children of older mothers, with these differences widening as children grew older. The growth gaps were larger in boys than girls, and the disparities persisted even after accounting for other factors. The research highlights that adolescent motherhood is associated with longer-term growth failure in children beyond the immediate newborn period.
Key points
- At ages 0–5 years, children of adolescent mothers were 0.01 m shorter and 0.2 kg lighter than children of older mothers
- At ages 6–12 years, the gap increased to 0.02 m in height and 0.97 kg in weight
- Height differences grew by 0.01 m and weight differences by 0.77 kg between the two age periods
- Growth gaps worsened more significantly in boys than girls over time
- Results remained consistent using both regression and propensity score matching methods
Limitations
The study uses observational data and cannot establish causation; while propensity score matching attempts to account for confounding factors, unmeasured confounders related to maternal and household characteristics may still affect the results. The analysis does not explain the mechanisms through which adolescent motherhood leads to growth failure in children.
Abstract
Adolescent motherhood has been linked with poor health outcomes at birth for children, including high neonatal mortality, low birthweight, and small-for-gestational-age rates. However, longer-term growth outcomes in the children of adolescent mothers in low-resource settings remain inadequately studied. We used longitudinal data from the India Human Development Surveys, 2004-2005 and 2011-2012 (n = 12,182) and employed regression and propensity score matching analysis to compare the following growth indicators of children born to adolescent mothers (ages 19 years or below) with those born to older mothers. Growth indicators included height and weight during ages 0-5 years and 6-12 years and change in height and weight between the two periods. In regression-based estimates, children born to adolescent mothers were 0.01 m shorter and weighed 0.2 kg less than children of older mothers at ages 0-5 years. At ages 6-12 years, those born to adolescent mothers were 0.02 m shorter and weighed 0.97 kg less. The height difference between the two groups increased by 0.01 m and the weight difference grew by 0.77 kg over time. Height and weight difference between the two groups worsened among boys over time, while for girls, only the weight gap worsened. The results were similar when using propensity score matching methods. Public policies for reducing child marriage, combined with targeted health, nutrition, and well-being programs for adolescent mothers, are essential for both preventing adolescent childbearing and reducing its impact on growth failure among children in India.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- None evaluated; this is an observational study comparing children born to adolescent mothers with those born to older mothers
- Population
- 12,182 children aged 0–12 years from India, comparing those born to mothers aged ≤19 years with those born to older mothers
Key finding
Children of adolescent mothers were 0.01 m shorter at ages 0–5 years and 0.02 m shorter at ages 6–12 years