African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery

African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery ISSN 2198-4638 Vol. 2 (6), pp. 295-299, August, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A study of Caesarian Sections in Cyprus: The direct and indirect costs of scheduled caesarian sections among pregnant women

*Tassos R. T, Demetris P. Akinci and Rauf Clerides

Department of Pediatric Nursing Health Management, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.

*Corresponding Authors E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 19 July, 2015

Abstract

The increase in the number of Caesarian Sections is an important public health issue both in terms of health and economic effects. Our aim was to illustrate their actual financial cost and to determine their frequency. The study was done in a public hospital. We measured the direct and indirect costs of scheduled caesarian sections among a convenience sample of 13 pregnant women in August 2013, using micro-costing “bottom-up” approach. This included salaries, pharmaceuticals, consumables, laboratory tests as well as the indirect cost of supporting services. For each patient a separate sheet was created. The hospital stay was on average 7 days. We performed a quantitative analysis and processed the data using the program Microsoft Excel. According to the findings, the financial cost amounted to €2,654.60 on average. The research revealed an increase in the caesarians from 4.11% in 1980 rose to 40.07% in 2012 with a total cost at about 14 million (2.5%) of the health budget. These finding will help informed decisions on introducing policies for the diminishing of the caesarian sections in the country

Keywords: Caesarean section, rates, trends, financial cost, Cyprus