Abstract

SANABRIA RAMOS, Giselda; GALVEZ GONZALEZ, María  and  ALVAREZ MUNIZ, Manuel. Costs of prematal care for woman: City of Havana, 2000. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2004, vol.30, n.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

This paper presents a partial cost analysis-type economic evaluation, particularly referred to “pocket expenses”. The sample was composed of 340 females distributed into two groups, one is the control group and the other is the intervention group. The research work was performed in 10 polyclinics from three municipalities of the City of Havana; the women taken care of by these centers generally give birth in “America Arias” obstetric hospital. At the time of the research, the polyclinics were participating in a wider study that included the economic evaluation and was classified as s multicenter randomized controlled trial sponsored by WHO, with the objective of validating the care protocol of four prenatal appointments with respect to the ordinary program. The sample was calculated for the confidence interval of average values using reasonable amplitude. The basic source of information was a questionnaire that was applied to all the participating females. The main results underlined the particularities of the studied costs not only between the two groups but also among the polyclinics. They were expressed as absolute frequencies and percentages, with estimation of the median, the standard deviation and the significance tests. The number of prenatal appointments slightly exceeded that established by the care protocol; time spent in transportation and prenatal appointment was similar for both groups. In the opportunity cost, the pregnant women would like not to mix the prenatal appointment with any other activity. No statistically significant variations were observed in the two groups as far as pocket expenses associated to prenatal care appointment was concerned

Keywords : PRENATAL CARE [economics]; ECONOMIC ANALYSIS; HEALTH ECONOMICS, COSTS AND COST ANALYSIS; PREGNANCY; FEMALE.