Abstract
Objectives: To quantify drive distances to hospital obstetric services and advanced neonatal care and to examine such disparities by residential rurality and insurance type. Study design: Data for all-payer maternal childbirth hospitalizations in 2002 (N = 661,240) and 2013 (N = 634,807) from nine geographically dispersed states were linked with the American Hospital Association annual surveys to identify maternal residence zip codes and the addresses of hospitals with obstetric services or advanced neonatal care. Results: The uneven geographic distribution of hospital obstetric and advanced neonatal care increased between 2002 and 2013, varying by maternal residential rurality and insurance type. Women in rural non-core areas, with Medicaid or no insurance, and living in counties with lower income and educational attainment, had to travel farther to the nearest hospital with obstetric services or neonatal care than their counterparts. Conclusions: Women in communities that are already socioeconomically disadvantaged face increasing and substantial travel distances to access perinatal care.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 645-652 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Perinatology |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to acknowledge the State Inpatient Databases, Healthcare Cost, and Utilization Project, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center for data assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Nature America, Inc., part of Springer Nature.
