Screening for inter-hospital differences in cesarean section rates in low-risk deliveries using administrative data: An initiative to improve the quality of care

Table 2 Study population: characteristics and mode of delivery. Belgium 2001–2004.

	CS	%	Total		CS	%	Total
1) Maternal				2) Neonatal
Age classes				Gender
< 20 years	765	9.40	8,140	Boys	26,862	13.69	196,191
20–24 years	5,910	10.37	57,010	Girls	22,713	12.23	185,755
25–29 years	15,987	11.92	134,071	Undetermined	3		23
30–34 years	17,342	13.75	126,098	Birth weight
35–39 years	7,746	16.27	47,613	2500–2999 g	9,444	13.78	68,511
40 years+	1,828	20.18	9,057	3000–3499 g	20,431	12.18	167,699
Admission Day				3500–3999 g	15,119	12.89	117,250
Monday	9,560	14.84	64,422	4000–4499 g	4,584	16.07	28,529
Tuesday	8,827	13.80	63,948	Gestational age group
Wednesday	8,780	14.22	61,762	37–38 weeks	18,531	18.77	98,712
Thursday	8,961	14.29	62,729	39–40 weeks	25,628	10.56	242,645
Friday	5,212	10.73	48,555	41–42 weeks	5,419	13.34	40,632
Saturday	2,441	7.21	33,836	1 min Apgar
Sunday	5,797	12.40	46,737	Missing	10	16.13	62
Semester				< 4	1,141	21.61	5,281
2001-1	5,672	11.99	47,287	4 – 6	2,857	14.65	19,507
2001-2	5,975	12.43	48,058	> 6	45,570	12.76	357,139
2002-1	5,757	12.51	46,023	5 min Apgar
2002-2	6,254	13.14	47,605	Missing	10	15.38	65
2003-1	6,161	13.27	46,421	< 4	163	21.73	750
2003-2	6,550	13.55	48,356	4 – 6	703	18.03	3,898
2004-1	6,319	13.24	47,734	> 6	48,702	12.91	377,276
2004-2	6,890	13.64	50,505	Respiratory Syndromes
				RDS	480	31.27	1,535
				Wet lung	552	32.43	1,702
				Meconium Aspiration	510	19.23	2,652
				Intubation/Ventilation	959	27.88	3,440
				Congenital Anomaly	559	16.57	3,374
				*Admission N/NICU**	9,850	15.31	64,326

CS: number of cesarean sections carried out; %: proportion of the cesarean deliveries expressed as a percentage; Total: total number of deliveries with the characteristic under study.

ISSN: 1472-6963