Table of contents

  • List of tables
  • List of figures
  • Acknowledgements
  • 1 Introduction
    • Health status
    • Access and  equity
    • Quality of care   
    • Small area analysis
    • Australian studies of variation  
    • Purposes of this study
  • 2.  Method
    • Development of the mappings
    • Data collection  
    • Public  patients  
    • Private patients
    • Merging public  and  private data  
    • Data analysis
    • Insurance status
    • Statistical tests   
    • Cesarean section
    • Limitations of the data    
  • 3.  Results
    • Rates for mainland Australia
    • Cesarean section  
  • 4.  Discussion
    • National rates  
    • Variability at State/Territory level   
    • Variability within States at statistical division (SD) level
    • Variability within SDs at statistical subdivision (SSD) level  
    • Variability across capital cities  
    • Variability between metropolitan/non-metropolitan areas   
    • Cesarean section  
      • Variability at SD level   
      • Variability at SSD level   
      • Variability between metropolitan/non-metropolitan areas  
    • Summary
    • Possible causal  factors
  • 5.  References
  • Appendixes
    • A. Mappings for selected surgical procedures
    • B.  Area of usual residence c n1versions  
    • C. Notes on statistical procedures and  tests for analysing surgery rates
    • D. Other limitations of the data