Pregnancy outcomes and health care use: Effects of abuse☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Medical records of 1014 pregnant women participating in an abuse prevalence survey during December 1992 at the Royal Women's Hospital, Brisbane, were reviewed after delivery. Recruitment methods and details of patient consent for the prevalence study have been published previously.1 Briefly, this involved a once-only interview with consecutive patients during a prenatal visit. The protocol for the current follow-up study was approved by the hospital's Ethics Committee.
Details of age, education,
RESULTS
Delivery details were unavailable for some women who participated in the prevalence survey. Eleven had miscarried, three had pregnancy terminations and a further 59 women did not delivery at the Royal Women's Hospital. One record was not found. However, these women did not differ significantly from the total sample in terms of abuse, age, education, or marital status, nor were they more likely to have either miscarried or terminated their pregnancies before transfer.
Of the 1014 consecutively
COMMENT
Women are admitted to the Royal Women's Hospital during pregnancy, often repeatedly, with vague symptoms and discharged without a clear diagnosis. Although evidence is available that shows an increased use of health services by those who experience domestic abuse,17 family relationships are rarely considered when these women are treated. This is not unusual; providers of health care frequently fail to recognize signs of abuse or, when abuse is suspected, fail to become involved.2, 7, 18
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Cited by (0)
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From the Royal Women's Hospital (Brisbane)aand the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.b
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Supported in part by a grant from the Women's Health Policy Unit, Queensland Health.
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Reprint requests: Joan Webster, BA, Assistant Director of Nursing (Research), Royal Women's Hospital, Bowen Bridge Road, Herston, Queensland 4029, Australia.
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0002-9378/96 $5.00 + 0 6/1/67803