Original ArticlesEffects of abuse on maternal complications and birth weight in adult and adolescent women☆
Section snippets
Materials and methods
This prospective study was conducted in the greater metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, between March 1993 and August 1996. Using procedures and consent forms approved by appropriate Institutional Review Boards, we interviewed 1897 women attending one of six prenatal clinics. The majority were white (58%). The remainder were black (26.6%), Hispanic (4.9%), native American (3.0%), Asian (2.6%), and “other” (4.9%). Thirty percent (n = 559) were adolescents, and 70% (n = 1338) were adults.
Results
Of the 1897 women screened for abuse during pregnancy, 513 (27%) reported physical or sexual abuse in the past year and/or physical abuse since pregnancy. Overall, 4.5% reported sexual abuse in the past year. Adolescents were significantly more likely to report abuse (37.6%) than adults (22.6%) (χ2 = 44.94, df = 1, P < .001). Women who were classified as black, native American, or “other” also reported significantly higher research rates of abuse than other ethnic groups (χ2 = 15.16, df = 5, P
Discussion
Our study found similarly high rates of abuse among pregnant adult and adolescent women, as reported by Parker et al.5 Both studies used the same three screening questions to measure abuse, had exactly the same proportion of adults and adolescents, and were of predominately low-income women, which controlled for the intervening effects of poverty. Adults in both studies had the same rates of physical and sexual abuse in the year before pregnancy (23%). Although adolescents in our study reported
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Funded by NIH (R01-NR02696).