Hospital bed supply and inequality as determinants of maternal mortality in China between 2004 and 2016

BACKGROUND: Driven by the government’s firm commitment to promoting maternal health, maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in China has achieved a remarkable reduction over the past 25 years. Paralleled with the decline of MMR has been the expansion of hospital bed supply as well as substantial reduction in hospital bed distribution inequalities, which were thought to be significant contributors to the reduction in MMR. However, evidences on the impact of hospital bed supply as well as how its distribution inequality has affected MMR remains scarce in China. Addressing this uncertainty is essential to understand whether efforts made on the expansion of healthcare resource supply as well as on improving its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective has the potential to produce measurable population health improvements. METHODS: Panel data of 31 provinces in China between 2004 and 2016 were extracted from the national statistical data, including China Statistical Yearbooks, China Health Statistical Yearbooks and other national publications. We firstly described the changes in hospital bed density as well as its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Then, a linear mixed model was employed to evaluate the impact of hospital bed supply as well as its distribution inequality on MMR at the provincial level. RESULTS: The MMR decreased substantially from 48.3 to 19.9 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2004 and 2016. The average hospital bed density increased from 2.28 per 1000 population in 2004 to 4.54 per 1000 population in 2016, with the average Gini coefficient reducing from 0.32 to 0.25. As indicated by the adjusted mixed-effects regressions, hospital bed density had a negative association with MMR (β = − 0.112, 95% CI: − 0.210--0.013) while every 0.1-unit reduction of Gini coefficient suggested 14.50% decline in MMR on average (β = 1.354, 95% CI: 0.123–2.584). Based on the mediation analysis, the association between hospital bed density or Gini coefficient with MMR was found to be significantly mediated by facility birth rate, especially during the period from 2004 to 2009. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided empirical evidences on China’s impressive success in the aspect of reducing MMR which could be attributed to the expansion of hospital beds as well as the improvement in its distribution inequality from a geographical perspective. Such findings were expected to provide evidence-based implications for long-term policy-making procedures in order to achieve rational healthcare resource allocations as well as promoting the equity and accessibility to obtaining health care from a holistic perspective. Constant efforts should be made on improving the equity in healthcare resource allocations in order to achieve the penetration of universal healthcare coverage. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-021-01391-9.