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Violence does not influence early pregnancy loss
Deborah B Nelson1, Jeane Ann Grisso, Marshall M Joffe
1Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6021, USA. dnelson@cceb.med.upenn.edu
Objective:
To examine the relationship between physical violence, controlling behavior, and spontaneous abortion (SAB).
Design:
Nested case-control study.
Setting:
Emergency department of a university hospital.
Patient(S):
One thousand one hundred ninety-nine pregnant women.
Main Outcome Measurement(S):
Physical violence and controlling behavior.
Result(S):
Cases experienced a SAB (n = 392) and controls maintained their pregnancy through 22 weeks (n = 807). Fifteen percent of women reported violence during the pregnancy, and 49% had reported one or more past episodes of violence. We found no relationship between any measure of physical violence (past, current, or by perpetrator) and the risk of SAB.
Conclusion(S):
Although physical violence was very prevalent in the study population, exposure to violence did not influence the risk of SAB.