title: A four-year survey on unexpected pregnancy diagnoses in a large urban emergency department in Parma, Italy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the rate of unexpected pregnancy diagnoses in the emergency department of the Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for all patients with a positive β-human chorionic gonadotropin test between October 2008 and September 2012 were retrieved from the hospital records. Information on age, gender, country of birth, and reason for presenting to the emergency department was collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, 160151 visits of female patients were recorded, including 385 (0.2%) women who received a diagnosis of pregnancy; 97 (25.2%) were native Italians and 288 (74.8%) were foreign-born. The percentage of women presenting for trauma did not differ between the two groups, whereas the rate of admission to the obstetrics and gynecology department was higher among natives (20.6% vs 9.0%; P=0.002). Africans represented 66.0% (n=190) of the women with an unexpected pregnancy diagnosis. Nigerians accounted for 20.8% (n=60) of all foreign-born women with a pregnancy diagnosis, although they represented less than 2% of the entire immigrant population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Unexpected pregnancy is a problem in the province of Parma, most notably among women from Sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts should be strengthened to provide more fragile groups with easily available family planning information.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy. Electronic address: gcervellin@ao.pr.it.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cervellin
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Comelli
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Clinical Governance, Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lippi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara / Q000208:ethnology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D049168:Pregnancy, Unplanned; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emergency department; Immigrants; Italy; Pregnancy testing; Unexpected pregnancy; Unplanned pregnancy; β-hCG