Increasing Incidence of Ectopic Pregnancy

doi:10.1001/jama.1984.03340280025014

Increasing Incidence of Ectopic Pregnancy

Pamela J. Aselton, RN, MS

Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program Waltham, Mass

Andy Stergachis, PhD

Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound Seattle

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.

Excerpt

To the Editor.— Recently, an increased incidence of ectopic pregnancies in New York State from 1971 to 1979¹ and in the United States from 1970 to 1978² was reported in The Journal. This prompted us to examine the experience of 35,297 pregnant women who were members of Group Health Cooperative (GHC) of Puget Sound in Seattle from Jan 1, 1972, through Dec 31, 1982.

All women with a diagnosis of ectopic or tubal pregnancy were identified at GHC, and incidence rates per year were calculated. The total number of pregnancies or conceptions per year was obtained by adding together the number of live births, spontaneous or induced abortions, and ectopic pregnancies.

There was a significant increase in the incidence of ectopic pregnancy during this 11-year period (x²[df=9] for trend, 42.6; P<.01; see Table). This increase was noted primarily in women older than 30 years and was