An Analysis of the Hospitalization Costs and its Influencing Factors for Different Delivery Modes

Objective: To understand the structure and influencing factors of hospitalization costs of pregnant women by analyzing the data collected from a tertiary teaching hospital in China. Methods: According to the medical records of all pregnant women who had delivery in this hospital from 2014-2016, we divided them into different groups and analyzed the basic information of pregnant women; hospitalization costs structure as well as its influencing factors. Results: The median hospitalization costs for pregnant women who had caesarean section, with or without indications, are 11483.94 yuan and 11109.15 yuan respectively, and the median length of stay of them are both 4 days, about twice as much as that of pregnant women who had vaginal delivery with median costs 5865.24 yuan and length of stay 2 days. According to multi-factor analysis, length of stay, different delivery modes, age and payment methods are main influencing factors of hospitalization costs. Conclusions: This study highlights the critical need to reduce the rate of caesarean section without indication. To this end, caesarean section should be done only when there is a medical indication, which can not only improve maternal and perinatal outcomes, but also make medical costs more reasonable.