A study on risk factors of abortion in a tertiary care hospital in Thrissur District, Kerala

Vivek Sunil; Sruthi Mankara Valsan

doi:10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20204298

Authors

Vivek Sunil 3rd Year MBBS Student, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Kerala, India
Sruthi Mankara Valsan Department of Community Medicine, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Kerala, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20204298

Keywords:

Abortion, Case control study, Risk factors

Abstract

Background: Abortion is the spontaneous termination of pregnancy before 22 weeks or if the foetus weighs less than 500 gm. Spontaneous abortions may occur as a result of genetic factors, infectious agents, uterine abnormalities and other maternal factors. The present study was undertaken to study risk factors of abortion in a tertiary care hospital in Thrissur district.

Methods: A hospital based case control study was done during a five month period. The sample size was calculated using the formulae [(Zα + Zβ)² × 2 × PQ]/d². Total 40 mothers admitted with abortion were taken as cases and 40 mothers admitted with conditions other than abortion of the same trimester were taken as controls. Data was collected with the help of an interviewer administered semi structured questionnaire.

Results: Out of total 80 mothers, 46.2% of them belongs to 21-25 age group and more than half, 66.2% of the mothers were primi gravida. There was a statistically significant association between mother’s occupation and occurrence of abortion. The abortion rates were higher among overweight mothers, but this difference was not statistically significant. Among obstetric determinants, previous history of abortion, primi gravida mothers, and history of travel had higher risk for abortion with odds ratio 3.5, 2.8, and 2.72 respectively.

Conclusions: Previous history of abortion and history of travel contributes to higher risk of abortion. Interventions could be targeted more on women with prevalent risk factors to increase health profits.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Dutta DC. Haemorrhage in early pregnancy. In: D. C. Dutta’s Text book of Obstetrics. 8th edition. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publisher; 2015:185-189.

Cunningham F, Leveno K, Bloom S, Spong CY, Dashe J. Spontaneous abortion. In: Williams obstetrics. 24th edition, New York: McGraw- Hill Education/ Medical; 2014: 350-356.

Maharana B. Correlates of spontaneous and induced abortion in India: an investigation using a nationwide large scale survey data. International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. Available at: http://paa2011.princeton.edu/papers/111333. Accessed on 18 June 2018.

Balakrishnan S. Spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. In: Textbook of obstetrics. 2nd edition, Paras Medical Publisher; 2016:144-147.

Sebastian D, Zuhara KF, Sekaran K. Influence of TORCH infections in first trimester miscarriage in the Malabar region of Kerala. Afr J Microbiol Res. 2008;(2):56-9 .

Osborn JF, Cattaruzza MS, Spinelli A. Risk of spontaneous abortion in Italy, 1978-1995, and the effect of maternal age, gravidity, marital status, and education. Am J Epidemiol. 2000;151(1):98-105.

Banerjee B, Dey TK, Chatterjee P. Work related physical exertion and spontaneous abortion. Indian J Public Health. 2005;49(4):248-9.

Lee W, Jung SW, Lim YM, Lee KJ, Lee JH. Spontaneous and repeat spontaneous abortion risk in relation to occupational characteristics among working Korean women: a cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative data from Korea. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1339.

Mukherjee S, Biswas S. Previous abortions and their relationship to current terminations and socioeconomic status based on hospital data. J Obstet Gynaecol India. 1959;10(1):1-7.

Coste J, Job-Spira N, Fernandez H. Risk factors for spontaneous abortion: a case-control study in France. Hum Reprod. 1991;6(9):1332-7.

Helgstrand S, Andersen AM. Maternal underweight and the risk of spontaneous abortion. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2005;84(12):1197-201.