The study was aimed to investigate the effect of maternal age on fetomaternal outcomes in primigravida singleton women aged above 35 years vs the younger age-group of 22–35 years.
The study was carried out for a period of 18 months in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Government Medical College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The data were prospectively collected on 209 primigravida singleton pregnant women admitted to the hospital and were divided into two groups, one above 35 years and the other between 22 and 35 years. The fetomaternal outcome of each pregnancy was recorded and exported on the data editor of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The comparative analysis between the two groups was done using the Student's independent t-test or Mann–Whitney U test.
Comparative analysis between two groups of primigravida singleton pregnant women showed that advanced-age pregnancy was significantly associated with increased incidence of gestational hypertension (38.6 vs 22.4%, p = 0.018), antepartum hemorrhage (APH) (21.1 vs 9.9, p = 0.031), spontaneous abortions (17.5 vs 7.2%, p = 0.027%), and cesarean delivery rate (64.3 vs 46.3, p = 0.042) as compared to younger age-group.
Advanced-age pregnancy was associated with adverse fetal outcomes like low birth weight (26.2 vs 13.2%, p = 0.047), preterm delivery (38.1 vs 22.1%, p = 0.029), intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD) (16.7 vs 6.6%, p = 0.047), and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) (33.3 vs 16.21%, p = 0.016) as compared with younger age-group.