MATERIALS AND METHODS
The labour ward register and case records were used
and all elderly primigravid women delivered at the
University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital over a period
of 10 years from 1st January 2001- 31st December 2010
were identified. The case notes were retrieved and
studied retrospectively. For each elderly primigravida, the
next primigravida aged 20-34 years that delivered was
used as a control. Data regarding socio-demographic
characteristic such as age, level of education,
occupation, religion, booking status, pregnancy
complications, intra/postpartum complications, mode of
delivery and neonatal outcome were extracted from the
case notes. The information was coded and transferred
onto a profoma designed for the study. This was then
transferred onto SPSS version 16 statistical software and
analyzed. The socio-demographic characteristics,
pregnancy complications and birth outcomes are
presented as percentages on frequency tables. Chisquare
test and student t test were used to analyze for
categorical variables and continuous variables
respectively. Multinomial logistic regression was used for
multivariate analysis to construct a model for maternal
characteristics, pregnancy complications and birth
outcome. The statistical significance was set at P< 0.05.
Elderly primigravidae are women aged 35 years and
above undergoing their first pregnancies as described by
Sivalingam and Avalani in 1989.