Owolabi, OO;
Cresswell, JA;
Vwalika, B;
Osrin, D;
Filippi, V;
(2017)
Incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications in Zambia: cross-sectional study in Central, Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces.
Contraception
, 95
(2)
pp. 167-174.
10.1016/j.contraception.2016.08.014.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To describe the magnitude and severity of abortion-related complications in health facilities and calculate the incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications at the population level in three provinces in Zambia, a country where abortion is legal but stigmatized. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 35 district, provincial and tertiary hospitals over 5 months. All women hospitalized for abortion-related complications were eligible for inclusion. Cases of abortion-related near-miss, moderate and low morbidity were identified using adapted World Health Organization (WHO) near-miss and the prospective morbidity methodology criteria. Incidence was calculated by annualizing the number of near-misses and dividing by the population of women of reproductive age. We calculated the abortion-related near-miss rate, abortion-related near-miss ratio and the hospital mortality index. RESULTS: Participating hospitals recorded 26,723 births during the study. Of admissions for post-abortion care, 2406 (42%) were eligible for inclusion. Near-misses constituted 16% of admitted complications and there were 14 abortion-related maternal deaths. The hospital mortality index was 3%; the abortion-related near-miss rate for the three provinces was 72 per 100,000 women, and the near-miss ratio was 450 per 100,000 live births. CONCLUSIONS: Abortion-related near-miss and mortality are challenges for the Zambian health system. Adapted to reflect health systems capabilities, the WHO near-miss criteria can be applied to routine hospital records to obtain useful data in low-income settings. Reducing avoidable maternal mortality and morbidity due to abortion requires efforts to de-stigmatize access to abortion provision, and expanded access to modern contraception. IMPLICATIONS: The abortion-related near-miss rate is high in Zambia compared with other restrictive contexts. Our results suggest that near-miss is a promising indicator of unsafe abortion; can be measured using routine hospital data, conveniently defined using the WHO criteria; and can be incorporated into the frequently utilized prospective morbidity methodology.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications in Zambia: cross-sectional study in Central, Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces |
Location: | United States |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.contraception.2016.08.014 |
Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2016.08.014 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Abortion-related mortality, Abortion-related near-miss, Induced abortion, Prospective morbidity methodology, Termination of pregnancy, WHO near-miss criteria |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1514583 |
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