Factors influencing rising caesarean section rates in China between 1988 and 2008
Xing Lin Feng, Ling Xu, Yan Guo & Carine Ronsmans
Volume 90, Number 1, January 2012, 30-39A
Table 1. Characteristics of women giving birth in urban and rural China, 1988–2008
| Characteristic | Live births in 1993 survey |
Live births in 1998 survey |
Live births in 2003 survey |
Live births in 2008 survey |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | ||||
| Urban areas | |||||||||||
| Household incomea,b | |||||||||||
| Quartile 1 | 1 005 | 40.8 | 179 | 24.4 | 310 | 20.4 | 106 | 9.5 | |||
| Quartile 2 | 861 | 35.8 | 197 | 28.3 | 431 | 24.0 | 187 | 13.2 | |||
| Quartile 3 | 389 | 17.8 | 211 | 29.7 | 531 | 28.1 | 382 | 26.6 | |||
| Quartile 4 | 97 | 5.4 | 112 | 17.2 | 589 | 27.4 | 798 | 51.4 | |||
| Health insurance | |||||||||||
| No | 805 | 33.7 | 380 | 49.2 | 964 | 57.9 | 502 | 35.9 | |||
| Yes | 1 549 | 66.3 | 322 | 50.7 | 899 | 42.1 | 976 | 64.1 | |||
| Mother’s educationc | |||||||||||
| None | 155 | 3.4 | 29 | 1.9 | 48 | 1.0 | 30 | 1.2 | |||
| Primary school | 1 065 | 49.4 | 301 | 54.8 | 741 | 44.8 | 532 | 40.0 | |||
| Secondary school | 883 | 37.0 | 252 | 29.1 | 628 | 33.0 | 484 | 32.5 | |||
| College and above | 244 | 9.8 | 115 | 13.5 | 445 | 21.2 | 430 | 26.3 | |||
| Parityd | |||||||||||
| 1 | 1 877 | 78.5 | 634 | 87.6 | 1 628 | 85.7 | 1 208 | 80.4 | |||
| 2 | 354 | 15.8 | 57 | 10.8 | 210 | 12.6 | 232 | 17.3 | |||
| ≥ 3 | 122 | 5.6 | 11 | 1.6 | 25 | 1.7 | 32 | 2.1 | |||
| Rural areas | |||||||||||
| Household incomea,e | |||||||||||
| Quartile 1 | 4 910 | 38.0 | 513 | 10.8 | 1 375 | 17.0 | 235 | 2.4 | |||
| Quartile 2 | 3 764 | 35.2 | 1 033 | 30.8 | 1 790 | 23.8 | 487 | 6.0 | |||
| Quartile 3 | 2 003 | 19.8 | 1 093 | 35.7 | 2 257 | 32.9 | 1 606 | 24.1 | |||
| Quartile 4 | 681 | 6.9 | 636 | 22.7 | 1 750 | 26.3 | 3 955 | 67.4 | |||
| Health insurance | |||||||||||
| No | 10 090 | 87.0 | 3 056 | 92.6 | 6 239 | 88.5 | 475 | 8.0 | |||
| Yes | 1 283 | 13.0 | 220 | 7.4 | 935 | 11.5 | 5 815 | 92.0 | |||
| Mother’s educationf | |||||||||||
| None | 2 882 | 22.9 | 573 | 11.3 | 905 | 9.9 | 471 | 5.7 | |||
| Primary school | 7 869 | 71.3 | 2 497 | 82.0 | 5 755 | 83.1 | 5 202 | 84.0 | |||
| Secondary school | 570 | 5.3 | 156 | 5.1 | 433 | 6.0 | 518 | 8.7 | |||
| College and above | 32 | 0.3 | 15 | 0.5 | 76 | 1.0 | 96 | 1.5 | |||
| Parityg | |||||||||||
| 1 | 4 072 | 37.7 | 2 118 | 68.3 | 3 870 | 56.2 | 3 228 | 50.5 | |||
| 2 | 4 111 | 37.0 | 865 | 26.0 | 2 612 | 36.1 | 2 567 | 42.7 | |||
| ≥ 3 | 3 180 | 25.2 | 293 | 5.7 | 692 | 7.6 | 478 | 6.5 | |||
a Household income was the per capita annual income, defined as the gross household income divided by the number of individuals in the household, adjusted to 2008 values using separate annual consumer price indices for urban and rural areas. Subsequently, respondents were divided into household income quartiles in rural and urban areas separately.
b Income data were missing for 12 births in urban areas.
c Information on the mother’s education was missing for 15 births in urban areas.
d Information on parity was missing for 7 births in urban areas.
e Income data were missing for 25 births in rural areas.
f Information on the mother’s education was missing for 63 births in rural areas.
g Information on parity was missing for 27 births in rural areas.
The data were obtained from four cross-sectional National Health Service Surveys carried out in China in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008.