The impact of centralization of obstetric care resources in Japan on the perinatal mortality rate

Distribution and Retention Trends of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Japan: A Longitudinal Study

Introduction:

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the distribution and retention of obstetricians and gynecologists in Japan.

Methods:

I used descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression to analyze data from National Census surveys administered during 1996-2016.

Results:

Between 1996 and 2016, the number of obstetricians and gynecologists increased by 6% and urban physicians by 15%, whereas the number of rural physicians decreased by 25%. The annual retention rate, which was calculated using the square root of the biannual rates [the number of physicians still working as obstetricians and gynecologists at the time of the subsequent survey (e.g., in 1998) divided by the number of obstetricians and gynecologists in the original survey (e.g., in 1996)], was >90%. Obstetricians and gynecologists were less likely to continue to work as obstetricians and gynecologists after 30-44 years of experience (1996-2006 cohort: OR = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.17-0.25; 2006-2016 cohort: OR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.25-0.41) and >45 years of experience (1996-2006 cohort: OR = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.11-0.17; 2006-2016 cohort: OR = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.08-0.15). The odds were lower for rural obstetricians and gynecologists (1996-2006 cohort: OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.51-0.82; 2006-2016 cohort: OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.43-0.80). As the number of female physicians increased, the number of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists also increased. In 2004, the mandatory postgraduate clinical training that was newly implemented caused a drop in the number of young doctors; however, this reversed in 2006. Rural to urban migration was steady, and the working hours were consistently long. To stabilize high retention rates, the working environments need to be improved.

Conclusions:

The present study clearly indicated the trend of the distribution of obstetricians and gynecologists in Japan. The result may be especially important for the health policy making in Japan.

From single-case analysis of neonatal deaths toward a further reduction of the neonatal mortality rate

Background The infant mortality rate (IMR), a key indicator of the quality of a healthcare system, has remained at approximately 3.5‰ for the past 10 years in Germany. Generic quality indicators (QIs), as used in Germany since 2010, greatly help in ensuring such a good value but do not seem to be able to further reduce the IMR. The neonatal mortality rate (NMR) contributes to 65-70% of the IMR. We therefore propose single-case analysis of neonatal deaths as an additional method and show an efficient way to implement this approach. Methods We used the Nordic-Baltic classification (NBC) to detect avoidable neonatal deaths. We applied this classification to a sample of 1968 neonatal death records, which represent over 90% of all neonatal deaths in East Berlin from 1973 to 1989. All cases were analyzed as to their preventability based on the complete perinatal and clinical data by a special commission of different experts. The NBC was automatically applied through natural language processing and an ontology-based terminology server. Results The NBC was used to select the group of cases that had a high potential of avoidance. The selected group represented 6.0% of all cases, and 60.4% of the cases within that group were judged avoidable or conditionally avoidable. The automatic detection of malformations showed an F1 score of 0.94. Conclusion The results show that our method can be applied automatically and is a powerful and highly specific tool for selecting potentially avoidable neonatal deaths and thus for supporting efficient single-case analysis.

Inequidad en mortalidad infantil y servicios pediátricos en Bogotá: nuevo modelo de análisis para América Latina

Objetivos Describir la relación entre la disponibilidad de servicios de salud y la mortalidad infantil en Bogotá.Métodos Se tomaron los datos de tasa mortalidad infantil (TMI) y razón de camas de hospitalización pediatricas (RCAM) y centros de servicios urgencias por localidad (RSUP) para los años 2010-2016, se estimo un GINI de distribución y un coeficiente de correlación de Pearson (r) entre las variables.Resultados Durante el periodo de años 2010 a 2016 hubo 726 946 nacidos vivos (NV) y fallecieron   7 681 niños menores de 1 año, con un aseguramiento del 94,7% de los cuales el 75% pertenecen al regimen contributivo. La tasa de mortalidad infantil disminuyó siendo 9,11 en el año 2016, pero aumentó en las localidades Tunjuelito, Antonio Nariño y Ciudad Bolivar siendo >12 por mil NV.Conclusiones Los servicios de salud tienen una distribución inetquitativa con un GINI de 0,44 para PSUP y de 0,701 para RCAM. Existe una correlación con mortalidad infantil en las localidades con menor RSUP tiene un r(-0,340) y para PCAM un r(-0,648) en el año 2016.

Selection and concentration of obstetric facilities in Japan: Longitudinal study based on national census data

AIM

A shortage of obstetricians with increased workload is a social problem in Japan. In response, the government and professional bodies have accelerated the 'selection and concentration' of obstetric facilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recent trend of selection and concentration.

METHODS

We used data on the number of deliveries and of obstetricians in each hospital and clinic in Japan, according to the Static Survey of Medical Institutions in 2005, 2008 and 2011. To evaluate the inter-facility equality of distribution of the number of deliveries, number of obstetricians and number of deliveries per obstetrician, Gini coefficients were calculated.

RESULTS

The number of obstetric hospitals decreased by 20% and the number of deliveries per hospital increased by 26% between 2005 and 2011. Hospital obstetricians increased by 16% and the average number of obstetricians per hospital increased by 19% between 2008 and 2011. Gini coefficient of deliveries has significantly decreased. In contrast, Gini coefficient of deliveries per obstetrician has significantly increased. The degree of increase in obstetricians and of decrease in deliveries per obstetrician was largest at the hospitals with the highest proportion of cesarean sections. The proportion of obstetric hospitals with the optimal volume of deliveries and obstetricians, as defined by Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was 4% in 2008, and it had doubled to 8.1% 3 years later.

CONCLUSION

The selection and concentration of obstetric facilities is progressing rapidly and effectively in Japan.