# Assessing the Impact of Patient Characteristics on Genetic Clinical Pathways: A Regression Approach
## 3 Results
### Statistical Analyses
#### 3.5.7. Clinical Pathway Length: Individual Characteristics vs. Clinical Pathway  
This short subsection contains an OLS estimation of the length on individual and dummy characteristics of the clinical path. The objective is to estimate the clinical path length by means of the regression model, i.e., to see whether the path length, conditioned with respect to individual characteristics is significantly different from the unconditioned average length divided by path. Furthermore, such regressions are used to find out whether the length is really influenced by personal characteristics, or whether, on the contrary, the significance is mainly captured by the clinical path. It is evident from the results (Table 23) that a large part of the significance of the path length is indeed captured by the clinical pathways (as can be deduced from the significance of the dummies). Some variables are, however, also significant and, in particular, children born of previous pregnancies and the referring professionals. For those not belonging to a clinical pathway, the number of children born alive may be negatively correlated, since the greater the number of previously  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variables** & **(1)** & **(2)** & **(3)** & **(4)** & **(5)** & **(6)** \\
**PPML** & **PPML** & **PPML** & **OLS** & **OLS Reset** & **OLS** \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Weeks of pregnancy} & 0.0411 *** & 0.0428 *** & 0.0344 ** & 0.561 ** & 0.902 & 0.561 ** \\  & (2.901) & (2.887) & (2.337) & (2.171) & (0.698) & (2.268) \\  & & \(-\)0.135 & \(-\)0.0924 & \(-\)1.304 & \(-\)2.009 & \(-\)1.304 \\ Live births & - & (\(-\)1.591) & (\(-\)1.061) & (\(-\)1.238) & (\(-\)0.679) & (\(-\)1.229) \\  & & \(-\)0.0965 & \(-\)0.0279 & \(-\)0.716 & \(-\)1.209 & \(-\)0.716 \\ Miscarriages & - & (\(-\)0.753) & (\(-\)0.230) & (\(-\)0.490) & (\(-\)0.451) & (\(-\)0.481) \\ VPI & - & 0.504 ** & 0.469 * & 9.046 & 14.97 & 9.046 \\  & & (2.022) & (1.749) & (1.266) & (0.535) & (1.027) \\ General practitioner & - & - & \(-\)0.833 & \(-\)8.004 * & \(-\)11.59 & \(-\)8.004 * \\  & & & (\(-\)1.333) & (\(-\)1.894) & (\(-\)0.861) & (\(-\)1.823) \\ Hospital specialist & - & - & \(-\)0.193 & \(-\)3.104 & \(-\)4.983 & \(-\)3.104 \\  & & & (\(-\)0.845) & (\(-\)0.963) & (\(-\)0.583) & (\(-\)0.970) \\ Private specialist & - & - & 0.391 & 6.891 & 11.44 & 6.891 \\  & & (1.272) & (1.118) & (0.630) & (1.082) \\ Consultant specialist & - & - & 0.161 & 2.848 & 4.707 & 2.848 \\  & & (0.718) & (0.746) & (0.557) & (0.779) \\ NHS specialist & - & - & \(-\)0.927 *** & \(-\)9.294 *** & \(-\)13.49 & \(-\)9.294 *** \\  & & & (\(-\)2.811) & (\(-\)3.013) & (\(-\)0.733) & (\(-\)3.112) \\ Squares of estimated & - & - & - & - & (\(-\)0.2266) & - \\  & & & & & 0.000287 & \\  & & & & & (0.162) & - \\ Constant & 1.982 *** & 2.021 *** & 2.251 *** & 8.055 * & 9.028 & 8.055 * \\  & (7.598) & (7.823) & (7.701) & (1.840) & (1.141) & (1.951) \\ No. obs. & 321 & 321 & 321 & 321 & 321 & 321 \\ R squared & 0.025 & 0.043 & 0.081 & 0.088 & 0.089 & 0.088 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: *** \(p<0.001\); * \(p<0.01\); * \(p<0.05\).  
\end{table}
Table 22: Clinical path length estimates with different techniques—foreign women sample.  
successfully completed pregnancies, the less complicated the mother's situation is likely to be and the shorter the cynical pathway.