Objective: To study incidence and determinants of emotional distress following
induced abortion. Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lund
University, University Hospital Malmö, Sweden. Subjects: A series of 854
participants at 12-month postabortion follow-up, representing 66.5% of the
1 285 women undergoing induced abortion at Malmö, 1989. Methods: Analysis of
data elicited at a semistructured interview 1 year after induced abortion, risk
factors for emotional distress being determined in a "case" subgroup (n=139) of
women satisfying all the inclusion criteria (i.e., postabortion emotional distress,
doubts about abortion decision, would not consider abortion again), as compared
with a control group (n=114) satisfying none of the inclusion criteria. The study
design is a retrospective study.