Frequency and profile of induced abortions: hospital based study in tertiary hospitals in Egypt

To determine the frequency and profile of induced abortions among hospitalized cases of abortions in three tertiary hospitals in Egypt.

A total of 517 consecutive cases of abortions with complete records were enrolled from three tertiary hospitals in Egypt: two hospitals in Cairo and one hospital in Alexandria. A data extraction sheet was designed to extract the required information from the records. It included: File No., Age, marital status, occupation, parity, number of children, previous abortion, history of contraception, trial of induction for this abortion and management of abortion in the hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) criteria of categorizing the abortion as possible, probable or certainly induced abortion was used for classification of abortion cases.

The proportion of classified induced abortions (certainly, probably and possibly induced abortions) was 30.6% in the total sample, being higher in Alexandria hospital (60.9%) compared to 14 and 19% in the other two hospitals respectively. Using the multiple logistic regression, the following factors were found independently related to induced abortions: Alexandria hospital (as proxy for residence), age > or = 30 years and having more than 2 children.

The current study revealed that about one third of hospitalized cases of abortion can be suspected of being induced. Induced abortion may be linked to elder age, higher number of children in the family and probably have geographical variation in Egypt.