Table 1.

Percentage Distribution of Women and Cesarean Section Rates by Categories of Individual and Structural Variables, Brazil, 1998, 2003, and 2008^*

	1998		2003		2008
Variables	Total percent	Cesarean section percent	Total percent	Cesarean section percent	Total percent	Cesarean section percent
Age
15-19	18.9	27.5	17.5	25.3	16.3	40.4
20-24	29.0	37.7	29.9	40.1	29.1	44.6
25-29	24.5	45.6	24.1	47.1	24.9	55.5
30-49	27.6	53.2	28.5	55.3	29.7	65.7
Years of schooling
0-3	22.2	25.8	14.8	25.6	8.0	35.7
4-7	39.1	37.4	32.8	34.5	25.3	42.1
8-10	18.0	44.3	21.5	42.6	24.2	46.4
11	14.2	59.8	22.2	56.0	30.3	60.1
12+	6.5	79.2	8.7	78.4	12.2	82.0
Live birth order
One child	41.2	43.9	43.7	46.1	46.6	57.5
Two children	29.7	47.1	27.7	48.5	31.2	53.7
Three or more children	29.1	34.0	28.6	34.7	22.2	42.3
Region of residence
North	4.3	37.7	7.2	33.0	9.7	48.7
Northeast	30.2	28.5	29.3	31.1	29.5	44.2
Southeast	40.5	49.2	40.9	51.4	39.7	57.3
South	17.5	44.1	15.1	48.4	13.0	59.8
Central West	7.6	54.3	7.6	49.1	8.2	57.4
Payment source†/type of hospital
SUS/public	63.6	31.0	65.7	31.6	70.6	41.2
SUS/private	9.7	40.8	9.4	39.7	2.9	56.5
Non-SUS/public	5.0	49.1	2.8	57.5	2.9	72.4
Non-SUS/private	21.6	72.9	22.1	78.8	23.6	85.0
n (analytic weight)	4,645	42.0	4,263	43.5	3,660	52.9
N (frequency weight)	2,111,531		1,911,071		1,773,573

^*Analytic weight was used to estimate these frequencies, preserving the sample size (4,645 in 1998, 4,263 in 2003, and 3,660 in 2008);

^†SUS is the Brazilian governmentally funded health system (“Sistema Único de Saúde”). Source: 1998, 2003, and 2008 Brazilian household surveys (PNAD).