Characteristics of teenage abortion in Southern China

D Yang, Z He, L Wu, D Zhang, M Weng, X Guo

The 2nd Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, Tian He Women and Children's Hospital, Guangzhou, China

Objective To analyze the proportion of teenage abortion among the total abortions and the age distribution of teenage abortion in Southern China from 1991 to 2005, so as to explore the trends and characteristics of teenage abortion rates in this time period

Methods A total of 6031 cases of legal termination of unintended pregnancy in our hospitals from January 1991 to December 2005 was analyzed. Among the total 4853 cases were in the first trimester and 1178 cases more than 12 week The proportion of teenage abortion in each year was calculated. Tabular and graphical descriptions of teenage proportion and the trends of teenage abortion rates are presented by different trimester. Method of Trend test is used to evaluate statistical significance.

Result The ratio of teenage abortion to total was 6.15% of all 17 years. Teenage abortion was 4.8% in first trimester while 11.55% in mid-trimester. The proportion of teenage abortion in pregnancy >12 weeks has been increasing over the past 17 years, rising from 7.69% in 1991 to 25% in 2005(figure 1). The difference is statistically significant (χ²=26.96 P<0.05). Most of the teenage abortions (>65%) were in age >18 years. The percentage of teenage abortion in this sample increased with age

Conclusion The proportion of teenage abortion from our hospitals' data has the increasing trend over the past 17 years. It may indicate that the teenage pregnancy rate in South China has been increasing, due to lack of the knowledge of safe sex and no contraception practice in the younger population. It is necessary to take the public health action to improve the sex education among the teenagers and to provide them contraception service. It is also important that the relevant sex education should be started at earlier age and more attention should be paid to the sexually active group.