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Comparative Study
. 2014 Apr 21;9(4):e95570.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095570. eCollection 2014.

Lifetime induced abortion: a comparison between women living and not living with HIV

Flávia Bulegon Pilecco  1 , Luciana Barcellos Teixeira  2 , Alvaro Vigo  3 , Michael E Dewey  4 , Daniela Riva Knauth  5
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Lifetime induced abortion: a comparison between women living and not living with HIV

Flávia Bulegon Pilecco et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Studies aimed at understanding the association between induced abortion and HIV are scarce and differ on the direction of the association. This paper aims to show the prevalence of induced abortion in a sample of pregnancies of women living and not living with HIV/Aids, determining variables associated with pregnancy termination and linked to the life course of women and to the specific context of the pregnancy.

Methods: Data came from a cross-sectional study, using interviewer-administered questionnaire, developed with women that attended public health services in Porto Alegre, Brazil. A generalized estimating equation model with logit link measured the association between determinants and abortion.

Findings: The final sample was composed of 684 women living with HIV/Aids (2,039 pregnancies) and 639 women not living with HIV/Aids (1,539 pregnancies). The prevalence of induced abortion among pregnancies in women living with HIV/Aids was 6.5%, while in women not living with HIV/Aids was 2.9%. Among women living with HIV/Aids, the following were associated with induced abortion in the multivariable analysis: being older, having a higher education level, having had more sexual partners (i.e., variables linked to the life course of women), having had children prior to the index pregnancy and living with a sexual partner during pregnancy (i.e., variables linked to the context of each pregnancy). On the other hand, among women not living with HIV/Aids, only having a higher education level and having had more sexual partners (i.e., determinants linked to the life course of women) were associated with voluntary pregnancy termination in multivariable analysis.

Conclusion: Although determinants are similar between women living and not living with HIV/Aids, prevalence of induced abortion is higher among pregnancies in women living with HIV/Aids, pointing to their greater social vulnerability and to the need for public policy to address prevention and treatment of HIV associated with reproductive issues.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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References

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Publication types

Grants and funding

The project that originated data analyzed in this paper was fully funded by National Scientific and Technological Development Council (CNPq) (Process MCT/CNPq Number 14/2009 – Universal). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.