Spatial Disparities in Access to Healthcare Professionals in Sichuan: Evidence from County-Level Data.

Ning Zhang,Ying Mao,Rongxin He,Jinlin Liu,Wei Ning,Bin Zhu,Tao Xie

doi:10.3390/healthcare9081053

Abstract

As a southwestern province of China, Sichuan is confronted with geographical disparities in access to healthcare professionals because of its complex terrain, uneven population distribution and huge economic gaps between regions. With 10-year data, this study aims to explore the county-level spatial disparities in access to different types of healthcare professionals (licensed doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists, technologists and interns) in Sichuan using temporal and spatial analysis methods. The time-series results showed that the quantity of all types of healthcare professionals increased, especially the registered nurses, while huge spatial disparities exist in the distribution of healthcare professionals in Sichuan. The local Moran’s I calculations showed that high–high clusters (significantly high healthcare professional quantity in a group of counties) were detected in Chengdu (capital of Sichuan) and relatively rich areas, while low–low clusters (significantly low healthcare professional quantity in a group of counties) were usually found near the mountain areas, namely, Tsinling Mountains and Hengduan Mountains. The findings may deserve considerations in making region-oriented policies in educating and attracting more healthcare professionals to the disadvantaged areas.

Highlights

Healthcare professionals play an important role in improving population health and promoting universal health coverage [1,2]
Inequalities in access to healthcare professionals have been reported in many countries, namely the United Kingdom [4], Australia [5], Spain [6], Thailand [7], South Africa [8], Brazil [9], India [10], Indonesia [11], and Cameroon [12]
As the biggest developing country in the world, China is confronted with geographical disparities in the healthcare professional distribution

Summary

Introduction

Healthcare professionals play an important role in improving population health and promoting universal health coverage [1,2]. Many previous studies have shown the relationship between qualified healthcare professionals and health outcomes [3]. Inequalities in access to healthcare professionals have been reported in many countries, namely the United Kingdom [4], Australia [5], Spain [6], Thailand [7], South Africa [8], Brazil [9], India [10], Indonesia [11], and Cameroon [12]. As the biggest developing country in the world, China is confronted with geographical disparities in the healthcare professional distribution. A large number of researchers have studied the equity in the distribution of healthcare professionals in China

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion