Abstract
Study Objective
To evaluate the prevalence of anemia among female adolescents and young adults seeking
abortion care at a county hospital, and to determine its associated factors.
Design
A cross-sectional retrospective study.
Setting
John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois.
Participants
Young women (N = 2916; ages 11-24 years) who underwent first trimester medical or
surgical termination in 2016.
Interventions and Main Outcome Measures
Hemoglobin concentration at time of presentation, age, gestational age, body mass
index, race/ethnicity, education, sexually transmitted infection status, and insurance
status.
Results
On average, women were 21 (SD, 2.2) years old, 87% (2545 of 2916) African-American,
and 64% (1863 of 2916) were Medicaid recipients. Gestational age at time of presentation
ranged from 4 weeks 6 days to 13 weeks 6 days, and 58% (1695 of 2916) had surgical
termination. Overall, 16% (451 of 2916) had hemoglobin concentrations of less than
11 g/dL. Categorization of severity showed that 4% (126 of 2916) of women had moderate
and 11% (325 of 2916) had mild anemia. Only 2.6% of women (75 of 2916) had any history
of anemia, and 91% (412 of 451) of anemic women did not have a preexisting anemia
diagnosis. Fifteen percent of anemic women (51 of 451) had positive sexually transmitted
infection screening, but positive status was not associated with anemia in crude or
multivariable models (P = .4-.6). In a multivariable model, later gestational age, decreasing body mass index,
and multiparity were significantly associated with anemia prevalence after adjustment.
Conclusion
Our study showed an elevated prevalence of undiagnosed anemia. Ultimately, the abortion
care setting can be an intersection for continued ambulatory care and provides an
important opportunity to diagnose and educate young women on anemia management.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 18, 2018
Footnotes
Dr Patel reports grants from Bayer, personal fees from Merck, grants and personal fees from Actavis, outside the submitted work. The remaining authors indicate no conflicts of interest.
This work was presented, in part, as an oral presentation at the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology 32nd Annual Clinical and Research Meeting held at West Palm Beach, Florida, in April 2018.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc.
