An analysis of the high cesarean section rates in Turkey by Robson classification

Cesarean deliveries outnumbered vaginal deliveries in Turkey. The aim of this study is to analyze the CS rates, sizes of the groups and their contribution to CS in the Robson10-Group Classification to address the main drivers that are associated with an increase in CS rates in Turkey by comparing with the customized benchmark, World Health Organization (WHO) Multi-country Survey Reference (MCS) population. We also evaluate the existence of the Pareto principle that states that for many phenomena, about the 80% of the consequences (increase in CS rate) are produced by 20% of the causes.

In Turkey, 1503 facilities (public hospitals: 879, private hospitals: 557, university hospitals: 67) provided delivery services for 1 266 300 women in 2017. The distribution of this number to public, private and university hospitals were 630 688 (49.8%), 565 441 (44.7%) and 70 171 (5.5%), respectively. The Ministry of Health in Turkey has established a registration system to analyze the increase in CS rates. by implementation of the Robson's classification. We analyzed the electronic records of 887 683 women sent from public: 554 916/630 688 (87.98%), private: 297 724/565 441 (52.65%) and university 35, 043/70.171 (49.93%) hospitals.

Overall CS rate was 51.2%. CS rates in public, private and university hospitals were 39.7, 70.6 and 70.3%, respectively (p < .0001), depicting significant differences for each sector. CS rates were higher than WHO MCS reference population for all Robson groups. Further evaluation was performed to reveal the rank order of Robson groups affecting on the CS rates. Groups 5, 1, 3, 2, 4 and 10 were the six groups constituting more than 80% of the women in healthcare facilities. Analysis of the data revealed the following conclusions in terms of the size of the group and the contribution of each group to total CS rate: Women in Group 5 played the dominant role with a 25.2% in size of the group and 24.4% contribution to the CS rate. Domino effect of the group 5 with both its size and contribution to CS was prominent. 32.3 percent of the women included in Robson Groups 1 and 2. Though CS rate under 10% was reported to be achievable for Robson Group 1 in the WHO MCS reference population, total CS rate was 19.6% in Turkey. In Robson Group 2, CS rate was reported to be 39.9% in the WHO MCS reference population, while the CS rate was 59.6% in Turkey. The size of Robson groups 3 and 4 included 32.9%. Contribution of both groups to CS rate was 5.6%. CS rates for group 3 and 4 were 11.2 and 36.8%, respectively, whereas those were reported to be 3.0% in Group 3 and 23.7% in Group 4 for the WHO MCS reference population. All singleton pregnancies <37 weeks in Robson group 10 constituted 3.1% of the whole group with a 2.3% contribution to the CS rate. Total CS rate for Robson group 10 was 70.5% in Turkey whereas it was reported to be 25.3% for WHO MCS reference population.

Robson classification in Pareto diagrams for each sector identified the main contributors to the CS rate as Groups 5, 3, 2, 1, 4 and 10 not only to target groups that may benefit from implementations or interventions but also guide public policies and investments for reducing CS rates in Turkey. Consequences of the commercialization on the health care system is apparent. Policies should be directed at the private sector, where 44.7% of the deliveries occur and where CS indication seems not to be driven by medical reasons completely.