Lifetime Prevalence of Abortion and Risk Factors in Women: Evidence from a Cohort Study

Background. 10-20% of pregnancies end due to spontaneous abortions. In recent years, nondocumentary evidence has been indicative of an increase in the prevalence of nonspontaneous abortions in Iran, especially in the Kurdish regions. The aim of this study is to assess the lifetime prevalence of spontaneous abortions and factors affecting spontaneous abortion in women 35-65 years old. Method. Data from the recruitment phase of Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease (RaNCD) cohort study was used. All of the 4831 married women 35-65 years old and with history of pregnancy were included in this study. In order to determine the abortion ratio, the number of abortions was divided by the number of live births, and multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to determine associated factors affecting abortion. Results. About 25.7% of women had a history of spontaneous abortion. The abortion ratio in women was 0.10. The abortion ratio in women with secondary education, first pregnancy and marriage age at ≥26, socioeconomic condition, and hyperthyroid and diabetes was high while the abortion ratio of women with high physical activity and BMI<18.9 or residents of rural area was low. After assessing the effective variables, it was found that women with high blood pressure have 63% less odds for nonspontaneous abortion, which is statistically significant (p value<0.05). Conclusion. Considering the effect of factors such as level of education, older age at the first marriage, and age at the first pregnancy on increased chance of spontaneous abortion, measures should be taken to take more care for these people.

Estimating abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy among adolescents in Zimbabwe, 2016: a cross-sectional study

ObjectiveTo estimate age-specific abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy in Zimbabwe, and to examine differences among adolescents by marital status and residence.DesignWe used a variant of the Abortion Incidence Complications Methodology, an indirect estimation approach, to estimate age-specific abortion incidence. We used three surveys: the Health Facility Survey, a census of 227 facilities that provide postabortion care (PAC); the Health Professional Survey, a purposive sample of key informants knowledgeable about abortion (n=118) and the Prospective Morbidity Survey of PAC patients (n=1002).SettingPAC-providing health facilities in Zimbabwe.ParticipantsHealthcare providers in PAC-providing facilities and women presenting to facilities with postabortion complications.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcome measure was abortion incidence (in rates and ratios). The secondary outcome measure was the proportion of unintended pregnancies that end in abortion.ResultsAdolescent women aged 15–19 years had the lowest abortion rate at five abortions per 1000 women aged 15–19 years compared with other age groups. Adolescents living in urban areas had a higher abortion ratio compared with adolescents in rural areas, and unmarried adolescent women had a higher abortion ratio compared with married adolescents. Unintended pregnancy levels were similar across age groups, and adolescent women had the lowest proportion of unintended pregnancies that ended in induced abortion (9%) compared with other age groups.ConclusionsThis paper provides the first estimates of age-specific abortion and unintended pregnancy in Zimbabwe. Despite similar levels of unintended pregnancy across age groups, these findings suggest that adolescent women have abortions at lower rates and carry a higher proportion of unintended pregnancies to term than older women. Adolescent women are also not a homogeneous group, and youth-focused reproductive health programmes should consider the differences in experiences and barriers to care among young people that affect their ability to decide whether and when to parent.

Unintended Pregnancies, Restrictive Abortion Laws, and Abortion Demand

This study examines the effect restrictive state abortion laws have on the pregnancy resolution decisions of women with unintended pregnancies. The empirical results find that the abortion ratio and the abortion rate of unintended pregnancies are more sensitive to increases in the abortion price than previous estimates that analyzed total pregnancies (unintended and intended). A Medicaid funding restriction has very little effect on a state's abortion rate of unintended pregnancies, but causes a larger decrease in the number of abortions of unintended pregnancies than previous estimates. A parental involvement law is associated with a significant reduction in a state's abortion ratio and the abortion rate of unintended pregnancies, which suggests that the law may have a behavioral modification effect. Neither a mandatory counseling law nor a two-visit law has a significant effect on a state's abortion ratio and the abortion rate of unintended pregnancies.

Abortos de semillas de Enterolobium cyclocarpum (Mimosoideae): efecto de la posición relativa dentro del fruto

We examined if seed abortion in Guanacaste tree fruits (Enteralobium cyclocarpum) is related to po sition within fruits, by establishing (he abortion ratio in 150 fruits from 10 trees, collected in Santa Rosa National Park (Guanacaste, Costa Rica). Fruits were divided in basal, central and distal sections. We found marginal differences in abortion ratio between these sections (Anova, p= 0.058), and also among trees (p= 0.01). In general, the distal section had the greatest abortion ratio in relation to other sections. This abortion pattem could be caused by resource competition within siblings and not by genetic differences among them.