Maternal age and the likelihood of a maternal request for cesarean delivery: a 5-year population-based study.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine associations between maternal age and maternal request cesarean deliveries.


METHODS
Five-year population-based data from Taiwan (1997-2001) that covered 904,657 singleton deliveries without a clinical indication for cesarean delivery that were judged by the attending physician were subjected to multiple logistic regression, year-wise, to examine the association of maternal age with request cesarean delivery, adjusted for health care institutional characteristics.


RESULTS
Request cesarean delivery rates steadily increased over the study period within each age group, disproportionately so among the 34+ age group. Women aged < 25 years were less likely than women aged 25 to 34 years (reference group) to request a cesarean delivery (odds ratio range, 0.67-0.88) and women aged 34+ were more likely than the reference group to have a request cesarean delivery (odds ratio range, 1.96-2.01), adjusted for health care institutional characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
Population-based data confirms the expectancy that request cesarean delivery propensity increases with maternal age.
Lin
Herng-Ching
HC
Taipei Medical University, School of Health Care Administration, Taipei, Taiwan. henry11111@tmu.edu.tw
Xirasagar
Sudha
S
D000328:Adult; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008423:Maternal Age; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013624:Taiwan