New criteria and quality of health care services in the governorate of Monastir, Tunisia

• Published in: Eastern Mediterranean health journal Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 107 - 112
• Main Authors: El Mhamdi, S, Soltani, M S, Haddad, A, Letaief, M, Ben Salem, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French; English
• Published: Egypt 01.01.2010
• Subjects: Adult; Cesarean Section - statistics & numerical data; Female; Health Care Reform - organization & administration; Humans; Logistic Models; Maternal Age; Maternal Health Services - standards; Mothers - education; Mothers - psychology; Multivariate Analysis; National Health Programs - organization & administration; Parity; Patient Satisfaction; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Outcome - epidemiology; Prenatal Care - psychology; Prenatal Care - standards; Program Evaluation; Quality Indicators, Health Care - organization & administration; Retrospective Studies; Tunisia - epidemiology; Tunisia
• ISSN: 1020-3397; 1020-3397; 1687-1634
• DOI: 10.26719/2010.16.1.107

In 2005 new quality criteria (7 items) were introduced for services provided to mother and child under the national perinatality programme. We evaluated this new version in a descriptive study conducted among a random sample of 400 parturient women from Monastir governorate. Mean age was 29.3 (SD 5) years and 42% were primipara. Although prenatal care was adequate in terms of number of antenatal visits for 82.5% of women, for only 21% were all 7 quality criteria fulfilled. The rates of caesarean section and premature birth were significantly higher in women who received quality care (P < 0.05). In logistic regression analysis, age and parity were the only factors independently associated with the quality of care. Additional efforts are needed to ensure good maternal and infant quality of care.