• J A Caballero, A J Butwick, B Carvalho, and E T Riley.
• Department of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
• Int J Obstet Anesth. 2014 May 1; 23 (2): 161167161-7.

IntroductionThe aims of this study were to assess racial/ethnic disparities for neuraxial labor analgesia utilization and to determine if preferred spoken language mediates the association between race/ethnicity and neuraxial labor analgesia utilization.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study of 3129 obstetric patients who underwent vaginal delivery at a tertiary care obstetric center. Bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the relationships between race/ethnicity, preferred spoken language and neuraxial labor analgesia.ResultsHispanic ethnicity (adjusted OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.61-0.98) and multiparity (adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.51-0.69) were independently associated with a reduced likelihood of neuraxial labor analgesia utilization. When preferred spoken language was controlled for, the effect of Hispanic ethnicity was no longer significant (adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.66-1.08) and only non-English preferred spoken language (adjusted OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.67-0.99) and multiparity (adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.51-0.69) were associated with a reduced likelihood of neuraxial labor analgesia utilization.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that preferred spoken language mediates the relationship between Hispanic ethnicity and neuraxial labor analgesia utilization.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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