Choice in maternity care: associations with unit supply, geographic accessibility and user characteristics

Table 1 Supply factors associated with expressed and revealed preference

Supply factors	Reason for choice is proximity (NPS¹)		Closest unit was chosen (VS²)
	N	%	N	%
	9657	36.4	736358	62.1
Distance to the closest maternity unit (km)
<5	4405	37.7	337566	62.9
5-14	2571	36.8	193939	61.9
15-29	2049	34.2	153919	62.3
30+	630	33.5	50934	55.9
p		0.0197		<0.001
Distance between 1st and 2nd closest maternity unit (km)
0	3891	25.1	287061	78.3³
1-4	2089	31.8	165762	32.8
5-14	2028	42.5	153782	49.4
15-29	1051	56.9	83828	74.7
30+	596	69.8	45925	85.5
p		<0.001		<0.001
Units in a 15 km radius
0	2680	34.0	204786	60.7
1	1727	55.7	130133	73.2
2	1356	31.6	99009	79.7
3	1045	25.1	71883	79.0
4-9	1167	31.0	93953	54.9
10+	1682	35.3	136594	36.7
p		<0.001		<0.001

¹NPS: National Perinatal Survey.
²VS: Vital Statistics Registry.
³When units are located in the same commune, the distance between them is computed as zero; units in the same commune are all considered to be closest.

ISSN: 1476-072X