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To investigate the impact of including the response option of 'Possibly' in the Distress question on the Matthey Generic Mood Questionnaire (MGMQ) during antenatal emotional health screening in English-speaking women. Some distress screening questions only allow respondents to choose between 'Yes' or 'No' to the presence of distress. The MGMQ, however, allows respondents to chose between 'Yes', 'Possibly', or 'No', which may be preferable if a participant is reluctant to state she definitely feels distressed. In Study 1, women undergoing routine antenatal psychosocial screening were allocated to either completing the MGMQ Distress question with the usual three-option response format of 'Yes, Possibly, No' (N = 960), or just a 'Yes, No' response format (N = 771). The proportion of responses were compared in each group, as were the proportion then screening positive on the MGMQ's Bother question. In Study 2, women (N = 113) attending routine antenatal clinic appointments were asked about their preference between these response formats. Including 'Possibly' resulted in only a slight increase in the proportion giving a positive response to the Distress question, and then also screening positive on the Bother question. In Study 2, a substantial majority of women (80%) preferred having 'Possibly' in the response options. While the impact of including 'Possibly' is small, it allows for more women to communicate how they are feeling on the full MGMQ. Given the large majority of women preferring having 'Possibly' included, we believe that the Distress Question is enhanced by having this as a response option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teenage pregnancy is a global problem and is considered a high-risk group, in spite of conflicting evidence. Our objective was to compare obstetric outcomes of pregnancy in teenagers and older women. This was a retrospective study of case records of pregnancies from August 2000 to July 2001. Girls aged ≤19 years were compared with pregnancy outcomes in older women (19-35 years) in the same hospital. The study took place in the Government General Hospital, Sangli, India, a teaching hospital in rural India, with an annual delivery rate of over 3,500. A total of 386 teenage pregnancies were compared with pregnancies in 3,326 older women. Socioeconomic data, age, number of pregnancies, antenatal care and complications, mode of delivery, and neonatal outcomes were considered. The incidence of teenage pregnancy in the study was 10%. A significant proportion of teenage pregnant mothers were in their first pregnancies. The teenage mothers were nearly three times more at risk of developing anaemia (OR = 2.83, 95% CI = 2.2-3.7, p < 0.0001) and delivering pre-term (OR = 2.97, 95% CI = 2.4-3.7, p < 0.0001). Teenage mothers were twice as likely to develop hypertensive problems in pregnancy (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.5-3.2, p < 0.0001) and were more likely to deliver vaginally with no significant increase in the risk of assisted vaginal delivery or caesarean section. Young mothers were nearly twice at risk of delivering low birth weight babies (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.5-2.2, p < 0.0001) and 50% less likely to have normal birth weight babies (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 1.2-2.9, p < 0.0001). The outcome of this study showed that teenage pregnancies are still a common occurrence in rural India in spite of various legislations and government programmes and teenage pregnancy is a risk factor for poor obstetric outcome in rural India. Cultural practices, poor socioeconomic conditions, low literacy rate and lack of awareness of the risks are some of the main contributory factors. Early booking, good care during pregnancy and delivery and proper utilisation of contraceptive services can prevent the incidence and complications in this high-risk group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]