Causal Framework on the Determinants of Delivery Expenditure in Emilia-Romagna region, Italy

The vast numbers of studies have been undertaken in order to detect the influence of social and biological factors on pregnancy outcome, though none of them described the causal framework of the delivery cost. The structure of the delivery expenditure can be viewed as a complex mechanism where socio-economic, environmental and biological variables enter into account. The aim of this study is to construct a conceptual framework of the determinants of delivery expenditure with highlighting the impact of maternal smoking to the cost. Analysis was based on an Italian administrative data composed from records of epidemiological, socio-demographic and organizational data. The population of interest consisted of 2381 new-borns born between January and June in 2010 in Emilia-Romagna, and those mothers indicated one of the following smoking status: stopped smoking in the last 5 years prior to pregnancy, stopped smoking at the beginning of pregnancy, continued to smoke during pregnancy.