Public Transportation Environment and Medical Choice for Chronic Disease: A Case Study of Gaoyou, China.

Yang Cao,Feng Zhen,Hao Wu

doi:10.3390/ijerph16091612

Abstract

Current research on the built environment and medical choice focuses mainly on the construction and optimization of medical service systems from the perspective of supply. There is a lack of in-depth research on medical choice from the perspective of patient demand. Based on the medical choice behaviour of patients with chronic diseases, this article identifies the spatial distribution and heterogeneity characteristics of medical choice and evaluates the balance between medical supply and demand in each block. On this basis, we explored the mechanism of patient preferences for different levels of medical facilities by considering the patient’s socioeconomic background, medical resource evaluation, and other built environment features of the neighbourhood by referring to patient questionnaires. In addition to socioeconomic characteristics, the results show that public transportation convenience, medical accessibility, and medical institution conditions also have significant influences on patient preferences, and the impact on low-income patients is more remarkable. The conclusions of the study provide a reference for the promotion and optimization of the functions of urban medical resources and the guidance of relevant public health policies.

Highlights

Medical treatment behaviour mainly refers to the behaviour of seeking medical help when people feel unwell or have symptoms of certain diseases
Public Health 2019, 16, x view of the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of medical service supply and demand, we explore the mechanism of patient preferences for different levels of medical facilities considering the patient’s of patient preferences for different levels of medical facilities considering the patient’s socioeconomic socioeconomic background, medical resources, and the built environment of the neighbourhood with background, medical resources, and the built environment of the neighbourhood with reference to the reference to the patients’ questionnaires (Figure 1)
Medical demand intensity based on their medical choices (Figure 4a), and we use the superimposed average medical demand intensity based on their medical choices (Figure 4a), and we use the superimposed comprehensive value of each medical institution service level as the medical supply intensity in each block unit (Figure 4b)

Summary

Introduction

Medical treatment behaviour mainly refers to the behaviour of seeking medical help when people feel unwell or have symptoms of certain diseases. It is an individual’s choice of behaviour in the context of the public health care system and taking into account the patients’ own socio-economic background and living environment. There are four types of influencing factors that affect individual medical treatment behaviour, including family demographic characteristics, economic factors, medical quality and patients’ medical needs. Many studies have found that the quality of service, medical charge and other factors of medical institutions have an impact on patients’ choice of medical treatment [7,8,9]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion