Evaluation of cesarean delivery rate at tertiary general hospitals based on risk adjustment

Abstract

Objective To calculate the standardized cesarean delivery rate by considering the individual characteristics of puerprae, and to evaluate the medical quality of obstetrics in the hospital. Methods Medical records of 69 406 puerprae from January to December in 2016 were collected from 33 tertiary general hospitals in Shanxi province. A logistic regression model was used to construct a maternal risk adjustment model of cesarean delivery, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) used to evaluate the goodness of fit of the model. Results Of the 69 406 puerprae, 30 881 used caesarean delivery, accounting to 44.37%. The cesarean section rate difference was statistically significant among those of different age, nationality, conditions upon admission, whether to participate in a clinical pathway, fetus number, birth weight and maternal gestational age, as well as the severity of complications (P< 0.001). According to the logistic model, those of older age, history of cesarean delivery, twins or triplet births, neonatal overweight, malposition, placenta previa, and those with various pregnancy complications tend to use maternal cesarean section surgery, with a goodness-of-fit of 0.82. With risk adjusted, the ranking of actual cesarean section rate and standardized cesarean section rate varies among the hospitals. Conclusions With the factor of puerprae factor adjusted, the standardized cesarean delivery rate can eliminate risk factors of the puerprae, it is feasible to scientifically evaluate the cesarean delivery rate of the hospital′s obstetric department. Key words: Obstetric department; Cesarean delivery rate; Risk adjustment; Evaluation