Abstract
With the increasing aging of the world’s population, research on the equitable allocation of elderly care facilities has received increasing attention, but measuring the accessibility of community care facilities (CCFs) in rural areas has received little attention. In this study, which covered 7985 CCFs in 223,877 villages, we measured the accessibility of CCFs in rural areas of Hubei Province by using the nearest distance method. Based on the accessibility calculation, the spatial disparities and agglomeration characteristics of spatial accessibility were analyzed, and the correlated variables related to the accessibility were analyzed from both natural environment and socioeconomic aspects by employing a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Our results show that 87% of villages have a distance cost of less than 7121 m and 81% of townships have a distance cost of less than 5114 m; good spatial accessibility is present in the eastern and central regions, while poor spatial accessibility is shown in a small number of areas in the west. The results from the clustering analysis show that the hot spot areas are mainly clustered in the western mountainous areas and that the cold spot areas are mainly clustered around Wuhan city. We also observed that area, elevation, population aged 65 and above, and number of villages are significantly correlated with accessibility. The results of this study can be used to provide a reference for configuration optimization and layout planning of elderly care facilities in rural areas.
Highlights
The nearest distance method was chosen for this study for the following two reasons: (1) based on the road network, the nearest distance method to calculate the accessibility can directly reflect the spatial equity and convenience of rural residents’ access to the corresponding services [43]; (2) on this basis, calculating the average shortest distance of an administrative unit allows for a clear and straightforward interpretation and analysis of a unit, which makes it easier to be understood by decision makers [30]
We calculated the accessibility of community care facilities (CCFs) in rural areas of Hubei Province at both village and township levels and analyzed their spatial characteristics and correlated variables to provide references for improving the configuration optimization and layout planning of elderly care facilities in rural areas
We found significant spatial clustering characteristics in the study area, with the hot spots with higher distance costs clustered mainly in the western mountainous areas and the cold spots with lower distance costs clustered mainly in the east and west of Wuhan city
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The world’s elderly population continues to grow, as fertility rates in many countries have fallen to very low levels and populations are living longer [1]. Prospects 2019, released by the United Nations, declared that the ratio of people over 65 to the total population reached 1:11 in 2019, and this ratio will reach 1:6 by 2050 [2]. China is the most populous developing country in the world. The seventh national census showed that the population aged 65 and above accounted for 13.5% of the total population, reaching 190 million, with different distributions in rural areas (17.72%) and in cities
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