Premature childbirth: pregnant women's characteristics of a population in the South area of São Paulo

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: to identify the characteristics of pregnant women who had premature child-birth (PPT) in the South region of São Paulo city. Methods: a cross-sectional observational study with a data collection of 122 medical files on pregnant women who had PPT in 2013. The collected data were analyzed by a statistical package, Graphpad Prism 6. As for the variables that were shown to be significant in the multivariate regression, an analysis was performed in a dichotomous form by odds ratio. Results: the mean age of the pregnant women was 24.9 years old. Of the 122 pregnant women, 34.4% were included in the age group considered to be at risk by the Ministry of Health. The predominant race was mixed (46.2%). 41.8% were high school graduates. Regarding to personal background, the history on urinary infection was mostly mentioned (37.5%). In relation to family history regarding clinical conditions, 43% had diabetes history and 61% had hypertension. As for gynecological history, 37.5% reported having dysmenorrhea during menstrual cycles. Multivariate analysis was performed and found that particularly hypertension and dysmenorrhea were the most significant. Conclusions: Regarding to women´s risk factors for premature childbirth, the most determining factor was dysmenorrhea, followed by hypertension.