• Mastaki J Kambale.
• Independent Researcher, Via Leopardi,12/A, 60015 Falconara M, Italy. jkmastaki@hotmail.com
• Afr Health Sci. 2011 Dec 1; 11 (4): 560565560-5.

BackgroundCaesarean section birth is a frequent mode of delivery worldwide. Several social factors have been demonstrated to be strong predictors of caesarean births.ObjectivesTo identify possible social predictors of caesarean section births in Italy.MethodsData for this study were drawn from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) survey conducted during year 2005 which comprised a nationally representative sample of 50,474 households (128,040 subjects). This 2005 ISTAT survey asked several questions to women who delivered (n=5,812) in the past five years prior to the survey about their delivery mode. The main dependent variables were caesarean delivery rates while independent variables included sociodemographics, health and health-related factors. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed.ResultsOur sample comprised 5,812 women. Rate of caesarean deliveries was 36.2 percent. Age (adjOR: 0.961; p=0.000) and residence (Reference: North-West; Centre: adjOR: 0.753, p=0.001; South: adjOR: 0.484, p=0.000; Islands: adjOR: 0.629, p=0.000) were the sole social factors which were significant in predicting caesarean delivery (adjusted model).ConclusionsRate of caesarean delivery in Italy is rather high. Age and residence are the sole social predictors evidenced from the ISTAT 2005 survey data.

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