Unmet need for health care during pregnancy: A French – Romanian comparison

Abstract

ABSTRACTHealth inequalities emerge from birth, the early neonatal mortality and infant mortality rates being different between countries. These differences may be related to inequalities in use of health care during pregnancy. The aim of this research is to identify and compare the profiles of women who do not follow pregnancy health care recommendations in two European countries with different health systems and indicators: namely France and Romania. However, health care recommendations for pregnant women are free in the two countries. Firstly, unmet need for health care during pregnancy is observed. Secondly, our results reveal that there is a relationship between perinatal health care abandonment and several forms of inequalities (social, informational and psychological). Thirdly, the much higher probability of forgoing perinatal health care for Romanian women could be associated with financial or informational problems which seems counterintuitive because perinatal health care recommendations are free. Free coverage is too insufficient to ensure the efficiency of the perinatal health care system.