Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov:254:200-205.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2020.08.042. Epub 2020 Sep 10.

The general populations' understanding of first trimester miscarriage: a cross sectional survey

C M McCarthy  1 , S Meaney  2 , R Rice  3 , J Sheehan  3 , K O'Donoghue  3
Affiliations

The general populations' understanding of first trimester miscarriage: a cross sectional survey

C M McCarthy et al. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Objectives: Miscarriage is a common, yet for many, devastating adverse pregnancy outcome. However, despite this the level of public knowledge on the topic is sub-optimal. We aimed to examine the general public's knowledge of miscarriage as well as their health information seeking behaviours associated with this topic.

Study design: We commissioned a national cross-sectional telephone survey of adults in the Republic of Ireland. 967 members of the general public consented to participate to this anonymised telephone survey. Sampling procedures ensured proportionality as per national standards. We examined respondents' definitions of miscarriage, its incidence and clinical findings, as well as the information seeking behaviours of the general population surrounding miscarriage.

Results: 699 (72%) of respondents provided an estimate of miscarriage frequency, with 28% of respondents correctly estimating that miscarriage occurs in 21-30% of pregnancies, with 61% under-estimating the incidence. Men were three times more likely than women to under-estimate (aOR3.5; 95% CI 2.4-4.9), as were those without children (aOR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2-2.6), or those living in urban areas (aOR 1.6; 95%CI 1.0-2.4. One third of respondents (33%) believed that the risk of miscarriage was higher following only one miscarriage. While 83% of respondents knew someone who had experienced a miscarriage, just over one third had discussed the topic of miscarriage with a family member/friend.

Conclusions: The general populations' knowledge of miscarriage, its incidence and associated factors is concerning, as are their health information seeking behaviours. Improving the level of knowledge of the general public could be achieved by adopting the topic into existing public health and education strategies. This will allow those experiencing miscarriage to frame their experience and expectations.

Keywords: Public health; knowledge; maternity; miscarriage; obstetrics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

LinkOut - more resources