FRIDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Women with an unwanted first pregnancy who have an abortion do not seem to have a greater risk of long-term depression than similar women who carry to term, according to a study in the Oct. 28 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Sarah Schmiege of the University of Colorado in Boulder and a colleague conducted the longitudinal cohort study of some 1,247 women from a U.S. survey of young women who aborted or delivered an unwanted first pregnancy from 1970 to 1992.
The researchers found that the odds ratio of clinically significant depression was 1.19 in women who terminated compared with women who did not, a statistically insignificant difference. Analysis of subgroups known to underreport abortion, or of women who did not respond to the survey, did not change the outcome, the authors note.
Meanwhile, "the abortion group had a significantly higher mean education and income and lower total family size, all of which were associated with a lower risk of depression," the authors write. "Evidence that choosing to terminate rather than deliver an unwanted first pregnancy puts women at higher risk of depression is inconclusive," they conclude.
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