title: Sociobiological risk factors for spontaneous abortion in Malaysia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the risk factors of spontaneous abortion.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study was conducted by interviewing 350 women who were admitted to the university gynaecological unit for spontaneous abortion and 350 women who delivered normally at the university obstetric unit. Odds ratios, as the estimators of relative risks, were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The relative risk for spontaneous abortion among women in the age-group 30 to 39 years was 1.61 and among women above 40 years of age was 3.68 when compared to those below 30 years of age. In relation to career women, the relative risk of spontaneous abortion for housewives was 0.45. Ethnic group, parity, subfertility, previous induced abortion, ectopic pregnancy, contraception and menarcheal age did not influence the risk of spontaneous abortion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increasing age and a woman's career are significant risk factors of spontaneous abortion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obsterics and Gynaecology, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yahya
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Adeeb
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors