Social determinants of anesthesia choice for cesarean section in mothers attending selected primary health care centers of Tehran

Abstract

Background: There are different techniques for anesthesia in Cesarean Section (C/S), which can be affected by different factors including mothers and health care providers' preferences. The objective of the present study was to evaluate social determinants of anesthesia choice for Cesarean Section in mothers attending selected primary health care centers of Tehran. Methods: The current descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in mothers who had a history of C/S and settled in catchment area of selected Primary Health Care centers known as Defined Population (DP). The DP is linked to Social Determinants of Health Research center affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran. Results: Totally, 1408 mothers participated in the study. The mean±SD age of mothers was 27.6±4.42, more than 50% of the participants had university education, and about 25% of mothers were unemployed. The previous history of C/S was reported by 29.9% of mothers and 91.9% of these mothers had experienced general anesthesia. Anesthesia choice of the study participants was as follows: 562 (39.9%) general anesthesia, 566 (40.2%) local anesthesia, 231 (16.4) had no idea about the anesthesia method, and 46 (3.5%) did not want to have C/S. The most frequent person with whom mothers discussed the method of anesthesia prior to their admission was their gynecologist (44%). The final decisions for choosing anesthesia method were made by the patient in about 40% of the participants. Conclusion: Informing mothers appropriately about anesthesia procedure and possible complications of each technique in the prenatal period can help mothers for choosing the best method of anesthesia and may increase mothers' tendency to have local anesthesia.

Keywords

• Cesarean Section
• Primary Health Care
• Social Determinants of Health