Adolescent pregnancy and linear growth of infants: a birth cohort study in rural Ethiopia.

Young maternal age had a significant negative association with LAZ score of infants at birth while its association over time was not influential on their linear growth. The fact that wide spread socio economic and environmental inequalities exist among mothers of all ages may have contributed to the non-significant association between young maternal age and linear growth faltering of infants. This leaves an opportunity to develop comprehensive interventions targeting for the infants to attain optimal catch-up growth.