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Updated: May 1, 2026

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Success of Ultrasound-Guided Neuraxial Anesthesia in Cases with Difficult Anatomy
Published on: January 31, 2025
Preferred spoken language mediates differences in neuraxial labor analgesia utilization among racial and ethnic
J A Caballero1, A J Butwick1, B Carvalho1
1Department of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Introduction:
The 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.
Methods:
We 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.
Results:
Hispanic 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.
Conclusions:
This study provides evidence that preferred spoken language mediates the relationship between Hispanic ethnicity and neuraxial labor analgesia utilization.
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