Prevalence and influencing factors of medical disputes in the field of neonatology: a cross-sectional survey in the mainland of China.

Neonatal pediatricians are facing relatively high risk of medical disputes since higher risk of mortality during the neonatal period caused by the increased number of premature births worldwide. However, there is little knowledge about the current status and distribution of medical disputes in Chinese neonatology. We conducted a cross-sectional survey to investigate the prevalence, potential causes, and associated risk factors of medical disputes in neonatology in the mainland of China. The statistical analysis was done by SPSS, including Chi-square test and independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation analysis and binary logistic regression analysis. Among the 12,118 participated neonatal pediatricians, 9,013 (74.4%) experienced medical disputes, and about 96% neonatal pediatricians older than 60 experienced medical disputes. A positive correlation was found between the prevalence of medical disputes and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the corresponding city or province. "Overestimation of treatment effects from the perspective of the patients and their families" was the primary cause of medical disputes. Gender, age, educational background, hospital level, and the number of responsible beds were independent risk factors contributing to medical disputes. Information obtained from this study may provide useful clues for reducing the occurrence of medical disputes in neonatology in the mainland of China.