Objective To analyze the extent of deficit in total quantity of maternal health care (MHC) staff, the changing trend of maternal mortality rate (MMR) and their regional disparities in Beijing and Shanghai municipality during the period from 2000 through 2017 and to explore the suitable scale of MHC staff for the two regions.
Methods We searched China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science for research literatures on human resource for MHC in Beijing and Shanghai municipality from 1995 to 2017. The information on the deficit in total quantity of MHC staff was extracted from 166 retrieved studies (79 in Beijing and 87 in Shanghai) for calculation of a severity score to evaluate the deficit. Spearman correlation and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between the deficit in total quantity of MHC staff and MMR.
Results For Beijing municipality, the severity score for the deficit in total quantity of MHC staff decreased from 3.76 in 2000 to 3.40 in 2017, while for Shanghai municipality, the score decreased from 4.00 to 2.10. A significant correlation between MMR and the severity score was detected for Shanghai (r = 0.756, P < 0.01).
Conclusion The suitability of maternal health care staff quantity increased gradually in both Beijing and Shanghai municipality during 2000 – 2017 and the impact of the increase in total quantity of the staff on maternal mortality rate is more obvious for Shanghai. The study verified the feasibility of quantitative assessment on the scale of maternal health care staff.
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