birth_via_cesarean: Birth via Cesarean

In Mikuana/vitalstatistics: CDC Vital Statistics Analysis Tools

Description

A logical column indicating whether the birth delivered via cesarean section.

Details

Data on the use of cesarean section not available until 1989.

This column is derived from a variety of different columns as the data set has changed over time. From 1989 to 2010 a pair of fields named UME_PRIMC and UME_REPEC gave Yes/No answers which indicated whether the birth occurred via primary (i.e. the mother had none previously), or repeat cesarean section. From 2004 forward, a field named ME_ROUT was introduced, which identifies whether the birth occurred via spontaneous vaginal delivery, forceps assist", vacuum assist, or cesarean section. From 2005 forward, a field named DMETH_REC which recodes the delivery method to a simpler "vaginal", or "cesarean" value set was introduced. Some or all of the columns are populated for some records throughout the years when they exist, so the calculation of our column requires an evaluation for all of these fields.

Due to the complexity of source data that are used to calculate this field, additional reference data sets for cesarean section proportions in each year are included, and used as a check against this column for quality assurance. See the code included in the examples section.

Value

a logical column

Data Quality Tests

This column is tested for the following quality assumptions prior to packaging:

1. non-NA values exist in each year after 1988

See Also

births

Other births-column: birth_in_hospital, birth_month_date, birth_state, birth_weekday_date, child_sex, mother_age

Examples

b = copy(births)
ext.birth_year(b)
library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)
bagg = b %>%
  group_by(birth_year, birth_via_cesarean) %>%
  summarize(cases = sum(cases)) %>%
  group_by(birth_year) %>%
  mutate(
    birth_via_cesarean = coalesce(as.character(birth_via_cesarean), 'NA'),
    method = ordered(
      birth_via_cesarean,
      levels=c('FALSE','NA','TRUE'),
      labels=c('vaginal', 'unknown', 'cesarean')
    ),
    proportion = cases / sum(cases)
  )

ref = bind_rows(list(
  transmute(HHS_cesarean_1989, y=Year, p=AllAges, dataset='HHS_cesarean_1989'),
  transmute(HHS_cesarean_1996, y=Year, p=AllAges, dataset='HHS_cesarean_1996'),
  transmute(CDC_cesarean_2013, y=Year, p=TotalCesareanRate, dataset='CDC_cesarean_2013')
))

ggplot() +
  geom_bar(data=bagg, aes(birth_year, proportion, fill=method), stat='identity') +
  geom_point(data=ref, aes(x=y, y=p, shape=dataset, color=dataset), alpha=0.6) +
  scale_y_continuous(label=scales::percent) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c(
    HHS_cesarean_1989="blue", HHS_cesarean_1996="red", CDC_cesarean_2013="black"
  )) +
  ggtitle("Delivery method proportion by year",
          paste(sep="\n",
                "stacked bars show proportions of delivery method as indicated by the births",
                "dataset. Points show reference aggregates of cesarean section proportions as",
                "calculated from granular data that are not publicly available.",
                "Each reference dataset is included in this package under the same name."
          )
  )

Mikuana/vitalstatistics documentation built on May 7, 2019, 4:57 p.m.