1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The purpose of this study is to determine whether hospital burden for childbirth is patterned according to women’s income, as well as to other socio-demographic characteristics.» (p. 14)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«The overarching hypothesis of this thesis is that low income is a risk factor for excess hospital burden related to childbirth in Canada.» (p. 14)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«A population-based record linkage between national health survey data and the Canadian Discharge Abstract Database (a record of all Canadian hospital separations) allowed the tracking of hospital utilization between 2005 and 2009 for which individual-level socioeconomic and demographic factors were also available. [In the end], 7,628 birth-related discharge abstracts attributed to 5,931 women were extracted. Complete information for 7,163 deliveries of 5,568 women was available and used in the models of length of stay and risk of maternal admission pre- and post-delivery.» (p. 4)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Results of data examinations show that «[h]ospital burden for childbirth in Canada is primarily driven by biological and regional differences, rather than by socioeconomic position. However, low-income women appear to have marginally longer stays in hospital following birth events than do middle and high-income women in Canada, and this pattern persists after adjustment for strong drivers of length of stay (parity and birth mode). While this may suggest that more complicated cases are benefiting from longer stays in hospital, it provokes the question as to whether there may be additional reductions in length of stay that could be achieved through resource redistribution to the prenatal period.» (p. 4)