Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Pregnancies, Abortion and Women’s Health in Rural Haryana, India

Agrawal and Sayeed Unisa

In this study women’s perceived health status and self-reported health problems has been examined according to the number of pregnancies, gestational stage of abortion, and number of abortions among the rural women of Haryana, India by analyzing data from an in-depth interview of 329 ever-married  women conducted in five villages of Haryana state of India during the year 2003. From our study, it emerged that women who had undergone an abortion were 1.7 times (OR: 1.68; 95% CI: 0.95-2.98; p=0.076) more likely to perceive their health status as worse with reference to women who had not experienced any abortion. Self-reported health problems such as pain in lower abdomen and body weakness were found to be significantly (p<0.0001) higher among women who had experienced abortion. As the gestational stage of abortion increases (late abortion), the health problem among  women is also found to be more as compared to women who had an early abortion i.e., abortion in the first trimester. Further, repeated pregnancies greatly worsen the health of women and also deteriorate the already prevailing morbidity conditions. Surprisingly, the number of pregnancies has not come out as a significant factor for the different health problems among women while it is believed that more number of pregnancies worsens women’s health condition.