Claire S. Houtvast (Netherlands)
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
General Practice
Claire is a twenty-five-year-old Medicine student. During her medical studies, an interest in sexual and reproductive health grew. In April 2020 she received the opportunity to do her scientific internship on characteristics of women with unintended pregnancies; she will be presenting those results during WONCA 2021. The last months Claire has been working as a research intern at Women on Waves, a Dutch pro-choice organization, where she addresses the willingness of Dutch general practitioners to prescribe the so-called abortion pill. She is currently living in Deventer, the Netherlands, where she is doing her final internships in geriatrics and dermatology. Claire is expecting to graduate her medical studies in December 2021.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN WITH AN UNINTENDED PREGNANCY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Session Name
OVERARCHING TOPICS II (ID 86)
Date
05.07.2021, Monday
Session Time
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Room
On-Demand 1 Slide 5 Mins
Presenter
Lecture Time
12:00 PM - 12:05 PM
Session Icon
On Demand

Abstract

Abstract Body

1. Background and purpose

Unintended pregnancy (UP) is a global health care issue that affects women from all societal levels. Worldwide, 48% of pregnancies is unintended. 20% of Dutch women face an unintended pregnancy (UP) in their lives. In the Netherlands, the general practitioner (GP) is often the first point of contact for half of women facing an UP and has a role in identifying women at risk. This systematic review aims to define characteristics of women at risk for UP.

2. Methods

Using the keywords ‘Unintended pregnancy’ and ‘Characteristics’, the search was performed in Pubmed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, APA PsycInfo and Web of Science. The search was limited to countries with legal and safe access to abortion.

3. Results

4,121 articles were screened and 12 studies were included. Women with unhealthy lifestyles, as substance abuse, obesity, and avoidance of regular health check-ups, experience more UPs. Psychosocial factors, as lower socioeconomic status or educational level and unemployment, but also history of sexual coercion or violence, are likewise related to high UP-risk. Lastly there are baseline characteristics that increase the risk for an UP, including young age, being multigravidas and being unmarried.

4. Conclusions

GPs have a role in identifying high-risk women and supporting them in prevention of an UP. Guidelines on the topic could improve care and we therefore advise quantitative research on national level on characteristics of women with UPs. As this topic is far from unique, our findings have international relevance in prevention of UP by all primary care physicians.

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