Pregnancy complications in Brazilian puerperal women treated in the public and private health systems.
Patrícia Louise Rodrigues Varela, Rosana Rosseto de Oliveira, Emiliana Cristina Melo and 1 others
PMID 29319740WHAT IT FOUND
87.8% of puerperal women reported at least one pregnancy complication, averaging 2.4 per woman.
Urinary tract infection, anemia, leucorrhea, bleeding, preterm labor, and hypertension were common, with different patterns by public versus private birth financing.
Key findings
0187.8% of 928 puerperal women reported at least one pregnancy complication, with an average of 2.4 complications per woman.
02The most frequent complications were urinary tract infection (31.5%), anemia (24.4%), leucorrhea (23.6%), vaginal bleeding (23.5%), preterm labor (22.6%), and pregnancy-induced hypertension (19.5%).
03Public-financed births had higher reported urinary tract infection and oligohydramnios, while private-financed births had higher reported premature rupture of membranes, gestational diabetes, placenta previa, and polyhydramnios; among women with complications, public-financed births also had higher percentages of adolescents, non-white women, women with less than 8 years of schooling, and women without a partner.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The complications were self-reported after birth, so memory bias is possible. The study did not classify the severity of complications, so it cannot show how severe the reported problems were. Private financing was grouped together without distinguishing health plan coverage types, so differences within private systems cannot be separated. The findings come from one Brazilian municipality, and one hospital did not authorise data collection, so they may not apply to other settings. The study is cross-sectional and did not test an intervention, so it describes reported prevalence and differences, not effects of public or private financing.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) in Brazil. No other conflicts of interest are stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that public or private financing caused any complication, or that one system is safer. The study is cross-sectional, relies on self-report after birth, does not classify severity, and covers one Brazilian municipality with one hospital not authorised to participate.