Abstract
OBJECTIVE: this study aims to investigate the accessibility of perinatal care services by local residents in Japan. METHOD: the analysis of this study is based on the geographical information system data collected as part of the collaborative fact-finding survey conducted by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2014. The residents' accessibility to perinatal care services was measured based on the pregnant women's travel time to the nearest medical institution by automobile. The results were analysed based on the average travel time across four types of medical institutions, namely comprehensive perinatal care medical institutions; general perinatal care medical centres; regional perinatal care medical centres; and medical institutions with more than ten full-time obstetrician and gynecologist affiliations. RESULTS: 91.7% of pregnant women spent less than 15 minutes in accessing comprehensive perinatal care medical institutions and only 0.3% spent more than 60 minutes. In contrast, 2.2% of pregnant women accessing general perinatal care medical centers and 17.2% accessing medical institutions with more than ten specialist affiliations spent more than 60 minutes in transit. CONCLUSION: it is beneficial to examine the variability in pregnant women's access to various types of perinatal care services in Japan. This type of quantitative finding is expected to induce further investigation in to and the revision of local perinatal care service guidelines and policies, which would in turn improve perinatal service delivery as part of the wider prefectural health care planning and implementation.
