ABSTRACT
A high proportion of maternal deaths are caused by abortion, especially induced abortion. This cross-sectional study determined the prevalence of illegally-induced abortion prior to admittance and its associated risk factors in 8 maternity hospitals in Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran, during 2003-04. In confidential interviews with 417 women who attended the hospitals with abortion, 50 (12.0%) reported that it was illegally induced. These abortions had a significant correlation with fever, septic shock and septic abortion. Of all pregnancies, 35.0% were unwanted, and 27.1% of these were illegally-terminated by induced abortions. Unwanted pregnancy was one of the most important risk factors for induced abortion (OR = 8.84, 95% CI: 4.36-17.92).
Subject(s)
Abortion, Criminal/adverse effects , Abortion, Criminal/statistics & numerical data , Abortion, Criminal/mortality , Abortion, Criminal/psychology , Abortion, Septic/etiology , Abortion, Spontaneous/epidemiology , Abortion, Spontaneous/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Attitude to Health , Chi-Square Distribution , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Fever/etiology , Humans , Inpatients/psychology , Iran/epidemiology , Maternal Mortality , Middle Aged , Population Surveillance , Pregnancy , Pregnancy, Unwanted/psychology , Prevalence , Risk Factors , Shock, Septic/etiology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Women/psychologyABSTRACT
A high proportion of maternal deaths are caused by abortion, especially induced abortion. This cross-sectional study determined the prevalence of illegally-induced abortion prior to admittance and its associated risk factors in 8 maternity hospitals in Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran, during 2003-04. In confidential interviews with 417 women who attended the hospitals with abortion, 50 [12.0%] reported that it was illegally induced. These abortions had a significant correlation with fever, septic shock and septic abortion. Of all pregnancies, 35.0% were unwanted, and 27.1% of these were illegally-terminated by induced abortions. Unwanted pregnancy was one of the most important risk factors for induced abortion [OR = 8.84, 95% CI: 4.36-17.92]
