Geographic access to emergency obstetric services: a model incorporating patient bypassing using data from Mozambique

摘要

IntroductionTargeted approaches to further reduce maternal mortality require thorough understanding of the geographic barriers that women face when seeking care. Common measures of geographic access do not account for the time needed to reach services, despite substantial evidence that links proximity with greater use of facility services. Further, methods for measuring access often ignore the evidence that women frequently bypass close facilities based on perceptions of service quality. This paper aims to adapt existing approaches for measuring geographic access to better reflect women’s bypassing behaviour, using data from Mozambique.