Lay summary
There are a raft of primary care services designed to improve children’s health in Aotearoa, these include maternity care, WellChild/Tāmariki Ora, GP visits and dental care. However, due to a lack of connected data little is known about how accessible and effective these services are for improving child health outcomes. Particularly for tamariki Māori, Pacific and rural families. The NZ Health Survey identified inequities for Māori and Pacific children in access to primary care services, yet is unable to identify regional and rural differences. The present study will first investigate whether it is possible link an existing primary care data set (from the Southern Primary Care Research Network) covering a population of over 300,000 to nationally held data collections, and second, using the linked dataset, map how paediatric primary care services are being used, and how rurality and ethnicity relate to service utilisation.