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Risk factors for ectopic pregnancy in the Taiwanese population: a retrospective observational study

  • General Gynecology
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore the risk factors for ectopic pregnancy (EP) in the Taiwanese population and to identify any unknown risk factors for EP that could assist awareness and diagnosis.

Methods

This retrospective case–control study utilizes Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Analysis was conducted with a one million sample database representative of the country’s population. The case group comprised of 6637 individuals in the database that coded for EP using the ICD-9 classification system from January 2003 to December 2011. The control group comprised of 13,270 females matched by age that were never diagnosed with EP during the study period.

Results

This study provides an analysis of the risk factors of EP utilizing NHIRD. Among the 6637 people diagnosed with EP, logistic regression with age adjustment showed that the highest risk factor was endometriosis (OR = 8.84, CI 5.13–15.23), followed by polycystic ovary (OR = 7.74, CI 3.37–17.79) and benign neoplasm of the ovary (6.01, CI 2.18–16.54). All odds ratios were determined to be statistically significant at p < 0.001.

Conclusion

This study has identified the diagnosis of endometriosis and polycystic ovaries as the two largest risk factors for EP in Taiwan, and has also newly identified benign neoplasm of ovary and uterine leiomyoma as risk factors for EP.

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Acknowledgments

This study based on data from the National Health Insurance Research Database provided by the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Department of Health and managed by National Health Research Institutes. The interpretation and conclusions contained herein do not represent those of National Health Insurance Administration, Department of Health or National Health Research Institutes.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

      Alan Hwang

    2. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

      Leslie Chou

    3. Graduate Institution of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

      M. M. Islam, Yu-Chuan Li & Shabbir Syed-Abdul

    4. International Center for Health Information Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

      Shabbir Syed-Abdul

    Authors
    1. Alan Hwang
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    2. Leslie Chou
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    3. M. M. Islam
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Shabbir Syed-Abdul.

    Ethics declarations

    Ethical approval

    This type of study was not required the Institutional Review Board review in accordance with the policy of National Health Research Institutes which provides the large computerized de-identified data. http://nhird.nhri.org.tw/en/.

    Financial support and funding

    This research is sponsored in part by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) under grant MOST 103-2221-E-038-014-, MOST 103-2221-E-038-016-, MOST 104-2221-E-038-013, MOST 104-3011-E-038 -001, Health and welfare surcharge of tobacco products grant MOHW104-TDU-B-212-124-001, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, under grant TMUTOP103006‐6.

    Conflict of interest

    The authors report no conflicts of interest.

    Additional information

    A. Hwang and L. Chou are contributed equally to this work.

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    Hwang, A., Chou, L., Islam, M.M. et al. Risk factors for ectopic pregnancy in the Taiwanese population: a retrospective observational study. Arch Gynecol Obstet 294, 779–783 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-016-4117-7

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-016-4117-7

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