Differences in C-section rates

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 52, No. 6, July August 2010, Page 296 News

A new study by University of British Columbia researchers has found that fewer than 2% of cesarean births in BC were a result of maternal request, and that the number of cesarean and assisted vaginal deliveries varied widely across health regions in BC over a 4-year period.

Published in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the UBC study examined all deliveries in BC between 2004 and 2007 and found an average of 21.2 per 100 deliveries were first-time C-sections, and 14.2 per 100 deliveries were assisted vaginal deliveries involving the use of forceps or vacuum devices, or both. 

Dystocia was the most common reason for cesarean deliveries (30%), followed by non-reassuring fetal heart rate (19.1%).

Canada’s cesarean delivery rate has increased dramatically over the past two decades, reaching a high of 26.3% of in-hospital deliveries in 2005–2006. Until recently, BC had the highest cesarean rate in the country, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The study also found significant regional variations in cesarean and assisted vaginal delivery rates across BC’s 16 health services delivery areas that could not be explained by ac­counting for medical indications for these procedures. 

Cesarean delivery rates ranged from 27.5% in the South Vancouver Island area to 16.1% in Kootenay Boundary. Assisted vaginal delivery rates ranged from 18.6% in Vancouver to 8.6% in East Kootenay.

According to study researchers, those variations reveal a need to further investigate the reason behind these large differences within the province’s system.

The researchers suggest potential reasons may include the differences in practitioners’ responses to similar medical situations, such as dystocia, including how they interpret and res­pond to the condition, and how they factor the resources available to them into their decisions. 

Co-authors of the study include Patricia Janssen, Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health, and Devon Greyson, data specialist at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research.

. Differences in C-section rates. BCMJ, Vol. 52, No. 6, July, August, 2010, Page(s) 296 - News.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply