Repeat Termination of Pregnancy among Hong Kong Women: a Retrospective Audit Review

Abstract

Objective: To study the socio-demographic factors and contraceptive practice among women seeking for firsttime versus repeat termination of pregnancy.
Methods: Records of 769 women attending the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong for termination of pregnancy from January to March 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. After excluding 173 cases with missing data, 596 cases were finally available for analysis.
Results: A total of 256 (43%) of the cases under review were having repeat termination of pregnancy. Women seeking for repeat termination of pregnancy were significantly older in age (p<0.001), lower in education level (p<0.001), higher in parity (p<0.001), and more being married (p<0.001). More than 60% of repeat termination of pregnancies were due to financial reasons and completed family. Approximately 4 to 13% of women were using reliable contraceptive methods before the current pregnancy, with significantly higher percentage in the repeater groups (p=0.002). Postoperatively, a significant majority (>60% of cases) chose to use reliable methods compared to preoperative usage (p<0.001). Only 2 to 6% of cases had used emergency contraception before the current pregnancy.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that repeat termination of pregnancy is a more significant problem among those older married women with completed family. We saw a positive change towards choosing more reliable contraceptive methods after termination of pregnancy, but this group of women probably need strengthened education and counselling to reinforce proper and sustained usage of the methods chosen. Emergency contraception should also be better taught.