2018 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 29-33
This study was aimed to analyze the relationships between average travel times to perinatal medical centers and maternal mortality rate from the perspective of secondary medical districts in Japan, by using a geographical information system.
After tallying the maternal mortality rate (per 100,000 births) during the period from 2005 to 2014 at the secondary medical districts, the presence or absence of maternal mortality in secondary medical districts was set as an explanatory variable; the results of binomial logistic regression analysis in which the number of births was added to the explanatory variable to adjust the population revealed that based on secondary medical districts with mean driving time of less than 15 minutes, secondary medical districts of 15 minutes to less than 30 minutes were significantly more likely to be a cause of maternal mortality (P <0.05). By contrast, for secondary medical districts of 30 minutes or longer, the possibility of maternal death is low, albeit no statistical significance was noted.
The results of the present study indicate the possibility that the maternal mortality rate increases as the driving time from the house of the pregnant woman to perinatal medical center becomes longer, suggesting that in order to ensure a safe and reliable perinatal medical care system, it may be necessary ensure that pregnant women have proper access to perinatal medical centers.
