Certain characteristics - biological, demographical, social and institutional - based on data collected from the recorded case histories of 2,588 women suffering complications after abortion, attended in a hospital of Santo Andre, an industrial urban area of Greater S. Paulo, State of S. Paulo, Brazil, in the period from January 1978 to December 1982, are identified Data show a two-fold increase in the number of women with complications after abortion over the period studied, rising progressively from 302 in 1978, to 672 in 1982. However, the number of births attended at the same hospital underwent an increase of only 14% in the same period, resulting in an average abortion/birth ratio of 1:3.6 and 1:1.8 in 1978 and 1982, respectively. The majority of the population under study (60%) professed nonskilled occupations. Age presented a statistically significant relationship with marital status, colour, profession and gestational results. A significant relationship was also observed between age at first menstruation, age at first sexual relationship and age at first pregnancy among those women belonging to the primigesta group.
Abortion, induced; Public health; Health surveys
