Accessibility to Primary Health Center Facilities Using Geospatial Techniques In Southern Plateau, Nigeria

Abstract

The Primary Health Center (PHC) System comprises of those small health care facilities which are based within communitiesand are more accessible to people in need of healthcare. However, assessment of spatial patterns, distribution and provisionof public health services has been neglected. This research analyzes the availability and accessibility of Primary HealthCenter (PHC) across Southern Plateau, Jos Plateau State. Spatial distribution of PHC was analyzed using ArcGIS to produceaccurate measure of accessibility. The spatial pattern of the PHC distribution was examined using average nearest neighbor5km walking distance to providers (PHC) for each of the six LGAs using near analysis. In addition, the ratios of PHC topopulation were calculated to identify underserved and served areas. The findings clearly indicate that the spatial pattern ofthe distribution of PHC was significantly clustered in Quaan pan (62) [p-value 0.015305, Z-score 0.139526], Wase (38) [pvalue0.046571, Z-score -1.990183] and Langtang South (34) [p-value > 0.096827, Z-score -1.660434], random in Mikang(26) [p-value 0.889035 Z-score 0.139526] and Langtang North (52) [p-value 0.0883033, Z-score 0.147125) and dispersed inShendam (63) [p-value 0.072625, Z-score 1.795182]. PHC are dense within the central parts of each LGAs while low densityaround the marginal parts. Substantially, more than half of the population 742,523 (62.74%) have no access to PHC within 5-km distance and 441,063 (37.26%) of the population have access to PHC. More so, the population ratio to PHCs shows that 1PHC served 3477 in Langtang North (least) and 1 to 5338 in Wase (highest). The output of this analysis which is spatialdistribution map and accessibility to this PHCs will assist policy-makers and authorities in planning public health delivery.
 Keywords: Geospatial, Techniques, Accessibility, PHC, Southern Plateau, Nigeria.