Abortion in women partners of inmates: prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

Objective: To analyze factors and behaviors associated with the prevalence of abortion in female partners of prisoners. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach carried out with 349 women of inmates in three penitentiaries in the State of Paraná. For data collection, it was used validated instrument BSSB – Brazilian Study on Sexual Behavior. Descriptive analyzes were processed, and through the Chi-square test, the occurrence of abortion and the researched variables were associated. Results: (38.3%) of the women reported abortion throughout their lives, there was an association between women under the age of 30 (p=<0.001), who reported smoking (p=<0.044), not using condoms (p=<0.001), who suffered sexual violence (p = <0.050) and who reported a diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections (p=<0.001). Conclusion: The present study showed associated factors for high prevalence of abortion in women partners of inmates. Abortion is considered an important public health problem and needs to be treated with priority by public health policies in different population groups.