[Induced abortion in women of reproductive age living with and without HIV/Aids in Brazil]

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and compare the characteristics of women living (WLHA) and not living with HIV/AIDS (WNLHA) regarding the report of lifetime induced abortion. Data from 1,777 MVHA and 2,045 MNVHA were collected between November 2003 and December 2004 during a cross-sectional study carried out in 13 municipalities of Brazil. After adjustment for confounding variables, 13.3% of MVHA versus 11.0% of MNVHA reported induced abortion in their lifetime (p>0.05). In multivariate analysis, independent correlates of lifetime induced abortion for both groups were: age, with older women reporting greater proportions of reporting induced abortion, living in the North region of Brazil, age at sexual debut (up to 17 years old), having three or more lifetime sexual partners, having ever used drugs and self-reporting occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases. The results suggest that, in general, the characteristics of women who reported induced abortion in both groups were similar, and that the contexts associated to HIV infection and to reproductive practices and decisions among women might share similarities.