Becoming pregnant in the teen years has many concerns with health, financial resources, dropping out of school, and social implications. It is a difficult situation and now there may be another factor not considered prior to this year – weight. Research posted in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, April 2009, states that critical periods of female development are linked to becoming fat. A teenage pregnancy is one of those developmental times.
Link Between Teenage Mothers and Obesity
Dr. Erica P. Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California states, "Our findings are potentially important because adolescence has been identified as one of the critical periods of development that set the stage for the onset of obesity later in life." [1] While pregnancy in adults may also be a factor for obesity, the influence is even greater in teens.
Obesity Study
The teenage weight study included 1,890 girls who enrolled at the age of 8 or 9. For the next ten years, these girls were monitored annually. By age 19, the girls broke out into four areas:
- 69% did not get pregnant
- 10% got pregnant but did not have a child
- 17% gave birth to a child between the ages of 15 and 19
- 4% gave birth to more than one child
The study also broke the girls into demographic groups. 983 of the girls were African-American and 907 were white. How did these two groups compare in percentage of pregnancies?
- 43% of the black girls had pregnancies
- 19% of the white girls had pregnancies
The Obesity Factor in Teenage Mothers
On average,at the age of 18 or 19, 28% of white women are overweight or obese and 49% of black women are overweight or obese. However, those that had pregnancies in the teen years had different statistics. If a teen had a pregnancy prior to age 20, she was more likely to be overweight or obese. The study shows that 40% of whites and 57% of blacks were overweight or obese if they had a pregnancy in their teen medical history. In addition, the black women that had one or more children in the teen years also had larger hips, larger waists and more body fat than did those girls in the study that had not been pregnant. Whites had similar results.
The Cause of Teenage Obesity
Gunderson and her team gave a reason for this physical difference. "The excessive fat deposition during adolescence may signal the onset and persistence of obesity and elevated insulin, lipid and blood pressure levels into adulthood." [1] Gunderson added that girls giving birth prior to age 20 are also at greater risk of having heart disease.
Gunderson called for more research to be done on weight gain and fat accumulation in the teenage years.
[1] "Teen pregnancy boosts girls’ risk of getting fat," Reuters, April 9, 2009.
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