Risk factors for spontaneous abortion from a prevention perspective in rural China: a population-based follow-up study

Abstract

Objectives

We conducted this study to investigate the risk factors for spontaneous abortion among rural Chinese women.

Methods

Risk factors prior to pregnancy associated with spontaneous abortion were identified among 17,248 rural women enrolled in a prospective population-based follow-up study. The risk of spontaneous abortion was estimated with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for several factors. A nonconditional logistic regression analysis was then performed to identify the independently associated factors.

Results

The total sample of this study population consisted of 17,248 pregnant women including 921 of them whose pregnancies resulted in spontaneous abortion and the incidence of spontaneous abortion was 5.04%. After the adjustment of confounding factors, menarche age, serum creatinine, family genetic diseases or maternal congenital defects was associated with an increased risk of spontaneous abortion while folic acid supplementation reduced the risk among rural Chinese women.

Conclusions

The findings of our study suggest that multiple modifiable factors may increase the risk of spontaneous abortion which may help relevant departments better to guide detailed effectively prevention strategies toward spontaneous abortion to improve the reproductive quality of rural population. Further studies are required to elaborate these risk factors for spontaneous abortion.

Keywords:

• Abortion
• epidemiology
• primary care
• reproductive health
• risk factor

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to those who contributed to the study design and implementation, including respective governmental and religious authorities for their support and collaboration throughout the study and the participants, especially the women for their cooperation to collect follow-up information in different phases. We also acknowledge the efforts of all our interviewers, gynecologists, laboratory technicians, and health workers in this study.

Ethical review

This work was approved by the Ethics Board of Anhui Medical University before initiation of the study (#060230060).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Availability of data and material

Whenever applicable and needed, required data or materials can be provided by the corresponding authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nature Science Foundation of the Anhui Provincial Higher Education Institutions of China [KJ2017A187] and the Fund of Excellent Talents in Colleges and Universities of Anhui Province, China [gxbjZD07].