Vicky Cárdenas

Validity of Maternal and Perinatal Risk Factors Reported on Fetal Death Certificates

We sought to estimate the accuracy, relative to maternal medical records, of perinatal risk factors recorded on fetal death certificates. We conducted a validation study of fetal death certificates among women who experienced fetal deaths between 1996 and 2001. The number of previous births, established diabetes, chronic hypertension, maternal fever, performance of autopsy, anencephaly, and Down syndrome had very high accuracy, while placental cord conditions and other chromosomal abnormalities were reported inaccurately. Additional population-based studies are needed to identify strategies to improve fetal death certificate data.

Organ Donation and Transplantation: Ethnic differences in knowledge and opinions among urban high school students

Purpose : To assess knowledge and opinions about the process of human organ donation and transplantation among American teenagers. Methods : A culturally sensitive 35-item self-administered survey assessing knowledge, opinions, and family discussion about organ donation and transplantation was conducted with 247 students in 13 separate classrooms encompassing three urban high schools in the same city. Results : More than 50% of the students did not know the correct answers to 13 of the 16 questions on factual knowledge. The sources of information about organ donation and transplantation among students were primarily television and school. African-Americans and Asian-Americans were significantly less likely to want to become organ donors when compared to non-African-Americans and non-Asian-Americans, respectively. Asian-Americans were significantly less likely to have discussed the matter with family members. Conclusions : Accurate, up-to-date, culturally sensitive youth-oriented health education that emphasizes family discussions about organ donation and transplantation is needed.

Induction of labor in the absence of standard medical indications: incidence and correlates.

Background: Induction of labor is an increasingly common obstetrical procedure, with approximately 20–34% of women undergoing labor induction in the United States annually. Objective: To determine the extent of labor induction in the absence of standard medical indications and to assess possible associations with maternal and infant characteristics and hospital factors. Methods: We ascertained induction of labor and associated details as part of a medical record validation study of 4541 women with live, singleton births in 2000 in Washington State using medical record, birth certificate, and hospital discharge data. In this analysis, we report findings for the 1473 women (33% of original cohort) whose medical records indicated that their labors were induced. Results: Among women with induced labor, 7.9% had no clinical information providing an indication for the induction, and 6.4% had only “nonstandard” indications recorded. Compared with women delivering in moderate volume hospitals, women who delivered at lower volume (odds ratios [OR] 3.9; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.8–8.6) or higher volume hospitals (OR 4.2; 95% CI 2.4–7.2) had significantly increased risk for undocumented indication of labor. Women who had undocumented indication for induction were at significantly decreased risk of giving birth at a teaching hospital and a public nonfederally owned hospital, and were at greater risk to give birth at a private religious hospital. Factors that remained independently associated with nonstandard indication for induction of labor were primiparas (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.3–4.2); multiparas (OR 4.3; 95% CI 2.5–7.4), pregnancy-induced hypertension (OR 0.2; 95% CI 0.1–0.4), hospital volume ≥2000 births annually (OR 19.9; 95% CI 6.7–58.6), primary (OR 11.7; 95% CI 4.1–33.6), and tertiary level hospital (OR 0.4; 95% CI 0.2–0.7). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that nearly 15% of inductions either were not clinically indicated according to standard protocols or indications were incompletely documented. At minimum, further studies are needed to explore how best to improve documentation of indications of labor because accurately describing, among other things, the process of labor induction, is a basic benchmark of care.

Effects of classroom education on knowledge and attitudes regarding organ donation in ethnically diverse urban high schools

Cárdenas V, Thornton JD, Wong KA, Spigner C, Allen MD. Effects of classroom education on knowledge and attitudes regarding organ donation in ethnically diverse urban high schools. 
Clin Transplant 2010: 24: 784–793.