Spatial accessibility assessment to healthcare facilities: urban and rural areas

Inna Čábelková,Eduard Neimatov,Zhanna Gardanova,Vladimir Esaulov,A Torre,Y Lavrikova,E Kuzmin,V Kumar,S Martinat

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202130102004

Inna Čábelková, Eduard Neimatov + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202130102004

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Abstract

This research concentrates on the spatial accessibility assessment to healthcare facilities. Specifically, in doing so it compares the situation in urban and rural areas. In many countries, health inequalities continue to be a major public health challenge. Furthermore, there is also urbanization that occurs when people move from rural areas to urban areas. It leads to an increase in urban population and the extent of urban areas. Driven by population growth, many cities in low and middle-income countries are growing at record rates which puts large pressure on the healthcare system and facilities. Our research demonstrates that due to many political, economic, social and cultural factors, the current inequalities in health care between regions, urban and rural areas and different age and income groups are increasing. Thence, there is a pressing need for the improvement of the healthcare in the lagged regions and areas using such means as the advanced technologies, analysis of data, as well as targeted funding and assistance to those who need it the most.

Highlights

Inequalities in healthcare cover several dimensions of service delivery, use of health care, health outcomes, reimbursement for health insurance and access, among others [1, 2]
A key element that needs to be taken into account when examining geographical disparities at the end of life is how the accessibility of health services is influenced by the distance and the time it takes for people to reach them, as well as by the geographical distribution of healthcare providers and patients who benefit from their services
Rapid expansion of cities across borders driven by increasing population and infrastructure development has resulted in these cities expanding and swallowing neighbouring urban areas into megacities

Summary

Introduction

Inequalities in healthcare cover several dimensions of service delivery, use of health care, health outcomes, reimbursement for health insurance and access, among others [1, 2]. Recent studies on China's health accessibility have highlighted the advantages and benefits of the combined proximity methodology for investigating urban or rural areas These two methods can be used to identify areas of high and low accessibility across an entire state [12]. It is important that concrete efforts are made to monitor inequalities in geographical access to healthcare and to achieve the 3rd United Nations Sustainable Development Goal by collecting and analysing relevant open data from the GIS To this end it is important to measure access to health facilities in order to identify disadvantaged areas and people. There is a need to connect and compare different accessibility measures, which is why it is suitable for urban planning analyses

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Findings

Conclusions