Table 1.

Characteristics of Missouri women with singleton live births, 1997–1999, by maternal age.

		12 to 17 (N = 10,131)		18 to 19 (N = 18,954)		20–35 (N = 28,899)
Characteristic		N	%	N	%	N	%
Infant mortality		121	1.2	158	0.8	173	0.6
Neonatal mortality		69	0.7	92	0.5	111	0.4
Post-neonatal mortality		52	0.5	65	0.3	60	0.2
Clinical Estimate of Gestational Age	<24 Weeks	40	0.4	50	0.3	59	0.2
	24–28 weeks	102	1.0	110	0.6	139	0.5
	29–32 weeks	161	1.6	252	1.3	260	0.9
	33–36 weeks	808	8.0	1,318	7.0	1,739	6.0
	>36 weeks	8,961	89.0	17,109	90.8	26,571	92.4
Birth Weight Category	Normal (> 2500 gm)	9,114	90.0	17,358	91.6	27,207	94.1
	Low (≤ 2500 gm)	1,017	10.0	1,596	8.4	1,692	5.9
Maternal Race	Missing/other	137	1.4	256	1.4	635	2.2
	Non-Hispanic white	6,688	66.0	14,234	75.1	24,288	84.0
	Non-Hispanic black	3,306	32.6	4,464	23.6	3,976	13.8
Age appropriate education level		8,592	86.1	12,516	66.0	25,086	86.8
Medicaid		7,698	77.1	14,983	80.4	10,070	35.4
W.I.C.		7,761	77.8	14,085	75.6	10,412	36.7
Food Stamp Program		2,060	20.7	5,351	28.7	4,729	16.7
Parity	nulliparous	8,660	85.5	12,375	65.3	8,382	29.0
Unmarried		9,140	90.3	14,064	74.3	7,986	27.7
Tobacco use During Pregnancy		2,486	24.7	5,425	28.7	5,262	18.3
Alcohol use during pregnancy		61	0.6	90	0.5	268	0.9
Kotelchuck index	Unknown	487	4.8	747	3.9	805	2.8
	Inadequate	2,101	20.7	2,789	14.7	2,037	7.0
	Adequate/Intermediate	5,273	52.0	11,121	58.7	18,832	65.2
	Adequate Plus	2,270	22.4	4,297	22.7	7,225	25.0

p ≤ 0.001 for all comparisons