Table 1.
Descriptive Characteristics of Live Births and Maternal Deaths Due to Any Cause in Louisiana, 2016–2017 (n=124,179).
| Total population | Maternal deaths | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) | Pregnancy-associated mortality ratio per 100,000 live births (95 % confidence interval) | ||
| Maternal age | |||
| <25 | 41,364 (33.3) | 104.0 (72.9, 135.0) | |
| 25–29 | 38,324 (30.9) | 67.8 (41.8, 93.9) | |
| 30–34 | 29,128 (23.5) | 92.7 (57.7, 127.6) | |
| 35+ | 15,363 (12.4) | 104.1 (53.1, 155.2) | |
| Race/ethnicity | |||
| Non-Hispanic White | 64,073 (51.6) | a | |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 45,496 (36.6) | 147.3 (112.0, 182.5) | |
| Hispanic, multiple, or other | 14,610 (11.8) | a | |
| Non-Hispanic White, Hispanic, multiple, or other | 57.2 (40.5, 73.9) | ||
| Educational attainment | |||
| Less than high school | 19,060 (15.4) | 157 (101.1–213.7) | |
| High school graduate | 39,412 (31.9) | 99.0 (67.9–130.0) | |
| Some college or associates degree | 64,994 (52.6) | 66.2 (46.4–85.9) | |
| Level of access to maternity care | |||
| Access to maternity care | 94,436 (76.1) | 90.0 (70.9, 109.1) | |
| Limited access to maternity care | 18,950 (15.3) | 79.2 (39.1–119.2) | |
| Maternity care desert | 10,793 (8.7) | 111.2 (48.3, 174.1) | |
| Residential parish urbanicity | |||
| Mostly urban | 104,080 (83.8) | 95.1 (76.4, 113.8) | |
| Mostly rural | 18,045 (14.5) | a | |
| Completely rural | 2,054 (1.7) | a | |
| Mostly or completely rural | 64.7 (29.5, 99.8) | ||
| Delivery facility volume | |||
| High (>1000 births) | 114,662 (92.3) | ||
| Low (≤1000 births) | 9,517 (7.7) | ||
| Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | ||
| Percentage of residential parish population with health insurance | 87.6 (2.0) | 87.7 (1.8) | |
| Percentage of residential parish families living below the federal poverty level | 15.0 (4.1) | 14.7 (3.8) | |
| Residential parish geographic area (square miles) | 816.4 (406.4) | 796.5 (405.7) | |
| Percentage of residential parish 2016–2017 births covered by Medicaid | 62.1 (10.2) | 62.8 (9.5) | |
a
In order to preserve confidentiality, cells with small numbers of deaths (<10) were combined with larger categories prior to mortality ratio estimation (mostly rural combined with completely rural; non-Hispanic White combined with Hispanic, multiple, or other race/ethnicities).