The Prevalence of Induced Abortion and Its Causes in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Study

Abortion is one of the major public health problems among women during pregnancy and is regarded as the third cause of death in many societies such as Iran. To this end, this systematic review aimed to estimate the prevalence of induced abortion and its causes in Iran.

PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and national Persian databases such as SID, Magiran, and Elmnet were searched from inception to March 11, 2023. In addition, the relevant conference abstracts in Elmnet, Scopus, and Embase were searched. The pooled prevalence of abortions (induced, spontaneous, and therapeutic) and related factors were calculated at a 95% confidence interval.

Of 310 papers retrieved from seven electronic databases, 34 were included in the quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis). The pooled prevalence of abortion 18.1% (95% CI: 14.5%-21.7%). The prevalence of induced abortion was 27.4% in the central areas of Iran. A short preceding birth interval, economic hardship situation, adequate number of previous alive children, low level of education, academic education, younger parents, maternal occupation, older age (> 35), and low knowledge about contraceptive use were the most frequent reasons for induced abortion.

The prevalence of induced abortion was 18%, showing a high rate for a religious country. Thus, policies and programs to reduce unwanted pregnancies should focus on increasing women's knowledge and access to suitable contraceptives, especially for women with a low socio-economic status.