Regional perinatal mortality differences in the Netherlands; care is the question

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Population characteristics by region for the period 2000–2004.

	North		East		West		South		Chi-Square
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Number of singleton pregnancies	87,857	100	200,158	100	416,768	100	199,220	100
Maternal age
<20 years	1,805	2.1	3,258	1.6	8,179	2.0	3,344	1.7	p < 0.0001
20–34 years	71,651	81.6	161,834	80.9	322,647	77.4	162,188	81.4
>= 35 years	14,401	16.4	35,066	17.5	85,942	20.6	33,688	16.9
Parity
Nulliparous	40,459	46.1	89,976	45.0	197,514	47.4	93,654	47.0	p < 0.0001
Parity 1	32,160	36.6	72,213	36.1	143,731	34.5	72,746	36.5
Parity 2+	15,238	17.3	37,969	19.0	75,523	18.1	32,820	16.5
Ethnicity non-western	6,356	7.2	20,810	10.4	94,415	22.7	23,206	11.6	p < 0.0001
Heavy smoking	727	0.8	1,102	0.6	1,678	0.4	1,036	0.5	p < 0.0001
Urbanisation
Very urban	6,332	7.2	6,107	3.1	152,444	36.6	10,505	5.3	p < 0.0001
Middle	44,806	51.0	149,537	74.7	232,546	55.8	138,893	69.7
Very rural	36,719	41.8	44,514	22.2	31,778	7.6	49,822	25.0
SES
High	13,175	15.0	46,103	23.0	137,766	33.1	40,413	20.3	p < 0.0001
Middle	41,321	47.0	112,929	56.4	163,727	39.3	120,345	60.4
Low	33,361	38.0	41,126	20.5	115,275	27.7	38,462	19.3

ISSN: 1471-2458