Factors associated with uterine fibroid in Ghanaian women undergoing pelvic scans with suspected uterine fibroid

BACKGROUND Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumours affecting premenopausal women and are often associated with considerable hospitalization and morbidity. Literature shows virtually no study concerning the quantification of the main factors associated with uterine fibroids in Ghanaian women. The purpose of this study was to assess the main factors associated with uterine fibroid among Ghanaian women presenting for ultrasound. METHOD A prospective cross-sectional study design was employed in this study. A total of two hundred and forty-four (244) women were consecutively evaluated from November 2011 to February 2012 using a 2-5 MHz curvilinear probe of Philips HD3 ultrasound machines at three centres in Accra using a trans-abdominal pelvic approach. Data was analysed with (SPSS) version 20.0 for windows, 2010; Chicago. The Pearson's Chi-square test was used to determine associations between selected demographic and gynaecological characteristics and uterine fibroid appearance. All tests were two-tailed and p-value of less than 0.05 was interpreted as significant. RESULTS The range, mean and standard deviation (SD) of the patients' age were 14-54 years, 31.89 years and ± 7.92 respectively. Factors that associated significantly with uterine fibroid in Ghanaian women included obesity (X2 = 17.3, p-value = 0.001), participant's age range (X2 = 47.4, p-value = 0.001), parity (X2 = -10.169, p-value = 0.001), and age at last delivery (X2 = 34.579, p-value = 0.001). CONCLUSION Uterine fibroid was mainly associated with women of older age group of the reproductive age than the younger age categories and also associated more with women with without children compared to those with more children. Moreover, it associated more with obese patients and patient with late age at last delivery.