Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0029713 (immaturity)
 4,335 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 4 year survey of a low socioeconomic prenatal population in a large outpatient clinic revealed an incidence of 4.4% gonorrhea by cervical culture. These patients who were culture-positive had a 7.6% perinatal mortality rate compared to a 3.0% perinatal mortality rate among culture-negative patients from the same clinic. The immaturity and prematurity rate was significantly higher in the culture-positive group as was the incidence of premature rupture of the membranes and prolonged premature rupture of membranes.
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PMID:Asymptomatic gonorrhea and pregnancy. 101 Jul 61

This discussion addresses the questions of the parinatal, neonatal, and infant health and development of children born to adolescent mothers as related to other biologic and social factors. Medical and legislative plans for adolescent mothers and their infants must be based on assessment of both mortality and morbidity of the infants born to adolescent mothers. Focus here is on neonatal data on 55,711 pregnancies collected by the Collaborative Perinatal Project of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke; neonatal data from the University of Kansas Medical Center covering 4000 pregnancies, 770 of which were gestations in teenage mothers; and obstetric, perinatal, and neonatal data concerning 6087 pregnancies in 1976, 1977, and 1978 at the Regional Perinatal Center at the University of Rochester. Ample evidence suggests a strong association between maternal age and birth weight. In particular, Hardy and Mellits found a higher frequency of low birth weight infants born to young black women. Interactions with other variables, including parity, clearly illustrate that firstborn infants are lighter than subsequent infants up to a maternal age of 35. Hoffman et al. have demonstrated that American women 18 years and under show a tendency to have infants of shorter gestational age than women 19-24 years of age. Cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, prolonged rupture of membranes, seizure disorders, and gonorrhea were significantly more frequently diagnosed in teenage mothers. The studies showed that behavioral and medical complications in the mothers were more powerful determinants of infants born with weight of less than 2500 gm than maternal age alone. In sum, when maternal and fetal growth retarding factors are taken into account among mothers of specific age categories, no biologic disadvantage appears unique to adolescent mothers. Findings fail to support the often expressed view that the mother's biologic immaturity is the main factor responsible for excessive fetal and neonatal deaths in infants born to very young mothers. Proportionately more infants born to adolescent mothers required admission to the intensive care or special care nurseries at the University of Rochester hospital than did infants born to mothers in their 20s (15.77% versus 13.9%). The data suggest that the mothering skills and child rearing practices of adolescent childbearing women have yet to be evaluated adequately.
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PMID:The infants of adolescent mothers. 736 May 10

Puberty today occurs about 2 years earlier than it did at the beginning of the century. The age of menarche is now usually between 11-13 years, while the establishment of spermatogenesis and appearance of the 1st ejaculation usually occurs between 13-15 years. The ages at which adolescents feel mature, want to behave like adults, and initiate sexual activity are now lower than in the past. Sexual relations may occur between adolescents before they are fully capable of recognizing their consequences as autonomous and responsible acts guided by a system of moral convictions. Both marriage and parenthood may have unfavorable consequences for future personality development, sexual adjustment, and the personal-social adaptation of the individual. In Cuba, the persistence of traces of bourgeois mentality can be seen in the tendency to teach young girls false concepts of female behavior. Traits such as submissiveness, passivity, and fragility are stressed, and girls are taught to inhibit their sexuality from a very young age. Adolescent boys are expected to display virility and machismo. Adolescent boys may be so interested in the physical aspects of sexual activity that they deprecate the aspects, considering them to be weak female traits. Boys are more likely to separate the sexual object and the love object, while such duality is unusual in girls. Among the most serious problems of adolescent sexual activity in Cuba is a high rate of abortions among young adolescents. Some adolescents are promiscuous and have frequent changes of partner. The age group 15-19 years has the 3rd highest rate of syphilis and the 2nd highest of gonorrhea. The proportion of births to minors has increased from 22% in 1973 to almost half in some provinces. Divorce rates have been in constant increase in Cuba, and psychosocial immaturity of very young spouses is a principal factor in divorce. The widening temporal gap between attainment of puberty and marriage, which is likely to be postponed until the completion of ever more time-consuming educations, is a factor in increased premarital sex although it is not a determinant of it. An adequate sex education program would help adolescents develop responsible attitudes and good foundations for their future sexual adjustments. It would also help prevent adolescent pregnancy, with its frequent negative consequences.
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PMID:[Sex education and the problem of early sexual relations among adolescents]. 1228 Aug 15