BMJ 2001;322:429 ( 17 February )

Letters

Maternal age and fetal loss

    Missing abortion stratification adds to confusion
    Having an induced abortion increases risk in future pregnancies
    Data should have been stratified for smoking habit
    Older women have increased risk of unexplained fetal deaths
    Risks of having children in later life need to be explained

Missing abortion stratification adds to confusion

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---The objective of Nybo Andersen et al's study of fetal loss was to measure the age related risk of fetal loss "taking into account a woman's reproductive history."1 To this end the authors stratified the women according to parity and previous spontaneous abortions but inexplicably omitted stratification by induced abortions. Their only reported use of their complete data on induced abortions was to deduct from the count of fetal loss any miscarriages that occurred before an intended abortion.

The effect of elective abortion on future reproductive health is contentious. Some investigators have found statistical associations between induced abortion and subsequent miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.2 Others have reported that there is no significant association between abortion and either of these events.3 Colleagues of the authors at the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, using many of the same data, have recently reported a strong association between induced abortion and subsequent preterm . . . [Full text of this article]
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