DETERMINANTS OF ABORTION AMONG WOMEN ADMITTED TO HOSPITALS IN FORTALEZA, NORTH EASTERN BRAZIL

Background Maternal mortality from complications of unsafe abortion co nstitutes a serious problem in several developing countries. There is, however, a paucity of well-designed and implemented studies in this a rea, especially in Latin America. The aim of this paper is to present the findings on the determinants and medical characteristics of aborti ons among women admitted to hospitals. Methods A descriptive cross-sec tional hospital-based study was carried out between October 1992 and S eptember 1993 in Fortaleza, Brazil. A Cox's proportional hazard model was used to estimate prevalence rate ratios after adjustment for confo unding. Results Among 2074 (48%) women who admitted to terminating the pregnancy, 66% reported using misoprostol to induce abortion. Women w ith an induced abortion as compared with those with an unlikely induce d abortion are younger, more often not married, have fewer children al ive and experienced one or more previous induced abortions. We have no t found any important differences with regard to complication or durat ion of stay in hospital. Conclusions This finding, at odds with most p revious studies, could reflect the special situation in Brazil where m isoprostol is used for illegally-induced abortion. The use of misopros tol by this population may have contributed to the reduction of severe complications related to induced abortion which were most prevalent w ith more invasive methods. Recommendations are made as to the need for confirmatory studies as well as on information regarding cultural per ceptions and concepts of abortion, and reasons why poor women fail to adopt available family planning methods.