Racial and ethnic differences in primary, unscheduled cesarean deliveries among low-risk primiparous women at an academic medical center: a retrospective cohort study
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Obstetrics and GynecologyDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2013-09-03Keywords
Cesarean deliveryRace and ethnicity
Mode of delivery
Nulliparous
Healthcare disparity
Health Services Administration
Maternal and Child Health
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Women's Health
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Cesarean sections are the most common surgical procedure for women in the United States. Of the over 4 million births a year, one in three are now delivered in this manner and the risk adjusted prevalence rates appear to vary by race and ethnicity. However, data from individual studies provides limited or contradictory information on race and ethnicity as an independent predictor of delivery mode, precluding accurate generalizations. This study sought to assess the extent to which primary, unscheduled cesarean deliveries and their indications vary by race/ethnicity in one academic medical center. METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional cohort study was conducted of 4,483 nulliparous women with term, singleton, and vertex presentation deliveries at a major academic medical center between 2006-2011. Cases with medical conditions, risk factors, or pregnancy complications that can contribute to increased cesarean risk or contraindicate vaginal birth were excluded. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate differences in delivery mode and caesarean indications among racial and ethnic groups. RESULTS: The overall rate of cesarean delivery in our cohort was 16.7%. Compared to White women, Black and Asian women had higher rates of cesarean delivery than spontaneous vaginal delivery, (adjusted odds ratio {AOR}: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.91, and AOR: 1.49; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.17, respectively). Black women were also more likely, compared to White women, to undergo cesarean for fetal distress and indications diagnosed in the first stage as compared to the second stage of labor. CONCLUSIONS: Racial and ethnic differences in delivery mode and indications for cesareans exist among low-risk nulliparas at our institution. These differences may be best explained by examining the variation in clinical decisions that indicate fetal distress and failure to progress at the hospital-level.Source
Edmonds JK, Yehezkel R, Liao X, Moore Simas TA. Racial and ethnic differences in primary, unscheduled cesarean deliveries among low-risk primiparous women at an academic medical center: a retrospective cohort study. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2013 Sep 3;13:168. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-13-168. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1186/1471-2393-13-168Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/30063PubMed ID
24004573Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedRights
Copyright 2013 Edmonds et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/1471-2393-13-168