Employment Status and Socioeconomic Status Are NOT Established Risk Factors for AUB
The available evidence does not support the claim that abnormal uterine bleeding is more common in unemployed women or those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The provided research focuses on clinical characteristics, diagnostic approaches, and treatment modalities for AUB, but does not examine employment status or socioeconomic factors as risk factors for this condition.
What the Evidence Actually Shows About AUB Risk Factors
The current literature identifies different risk factors for AUB:
Age and BMI are significant predictors of treatment response, with younger age (OR = 0.95, p = 0.015) and higher BMI (OR = 1.10, p = 0.005) affecting outcomes 1
Obesity and overweight status are prevalent among women with AUB, with 64.2% of patients in one study being overweight or obese 1
Ovulatory dysfunction (31.6%) and leiomyoma (16.8%) represent the most common identifiable causes of AUB in reproductive-age women 1
Barriers to Care vs. Disease Prevalence
It is important to distinguish between disease prevalence and barriers to accessing care:
Women face multiple barriers to seeking consultation for AUB including health literacy issues, taboo/normalization of symptoms, and healthcare provider accessibility 2
Poor experiences with healthcare providers and lack of accessible female GPs impede care-seeking behavior, but this reflects access issues rather than disease incidence 2
These barriers may disproportionately affect women of lower socioeconomic status, but the evidence does not demonstrate that AUB itself occurs more frequently in this population 2
Clinical Caveat
The absence of evidence examining socioeconomic factors in the provided research does not mean such associations don't exist—it simply means they have not been adequately studied or reported in these particular investigations. The focus has been on clinical etiology using the PALM-COEIN classification system rather than social determinants of health 1, 3.