The Health Impacts of Hospital Delivery Practices†

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Card, David; Fenizia, Alessandra; Silver, David
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; George Washington University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210034
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 42-81
• 关键词: acute myocardial-infarction; regional-variations; cesarean delivery; apgar score; identify indications; geographic-variation; active management; care evidence; mortality; birth

摘要

Treatment practices vary widely across hospitals, often with little connection to patients' medical needs. We assess impacts of these differences in delivery practices at childbirth. We find that infants quasi-randomly delivered at hospitals with higher C-section rates are born in better shape and are less likely to be readmitted, with suggestive evidence of improved survival. These benefits are driven by avoidance of prolonged labors that pose risks to infant health. In contrast, these infants are more likely to visit the emergency department for respiratory-related problems, consistent with a large observational literature linking C-section to chronic reductions in respiratory health. (JEL I11, I12, J13, J16)