Identification of factors influencing the rise of cesarean sections rates in Pakistan, using MCDM

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance,Volume 31, Issue 8, Page 1058-1069, October 2018. Purpose The rate of cesarean sections has been rapidly increased in the last few decades in all the developing as well as developed countries. The rate of cesarean sections determined by the World Health Organization has been crossed by many countries, like Brazil, India, China, USA, Australia, etc. Similarly, this rate has also increased in Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the factors that are responsible for the rising rate of cesarean sections in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach These factors are categorized under medical and non-medical factors. The medical factors include the obesity of mother, age of mother, weight of the baby, umbilical cord prolapse, fetal distress, abnormal presentation, dystocia and failure to progress. The non-medical factors include financial incentives of doctors, time convenience for doctors, high tolerance to surgery, patient ’s preference toward cesarean section, private hospitals, public hospitals, income status of patients, rural areas, urban areas and the education of patients. To identify the critical factors, data have been collected and a multi-criteria decision-making technique, called Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory, is used. Findings The result shows that the medical factors that are responsible for the rise in the rate of cesarean sections are umbilical cord prolapse, age of ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance - Category: Health Management Source Type: research