THE PREVALENCE OF BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS AMONG WOMEN ADMITTED WITH PRETERM LABOUR

Abstract

The aetiology of preterm labour is likely to be multifactorial. Prevention of morbidity lies in identifying high-risk patients. Various measures like risk scoring, biophysical, and biochemical markers were used to predict preterm labour but the overall predictive value was found to be poor and was not useful. Based on the proportion of bacterial vaginosis as 30% with a relative precision of 20% at 95% confidence level, the sample size was estimated to be 224 preterm pregnant women. A total of 225 pregnant women with preterm delivery were included in our study based on consecutive sampling during the study duration. The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among patients with preterm labour was 12% (95% CI: 8.05%-16.98%). The mean age of the patients with bacterial vaginosis was significantly lesser than those without bacterial vaginosis (p=0.006).