Inequality and Influencing Factors of Spatial Accessibility of Medical Facilities in Rural Areas of China: A Case Study of Henan Province
by: Shirui Liu, Yaochen Qin, and Yanan Xu
Research Objectives:
- Explore the spatial difference of accessibility of medical facilities in the study area, to enable analysis of the balance within and between townships
- Use spatial statistics to quantify the spatial pattern of accessibility
- Investigate what factors are influcencing accessibility in the study area – from the 3 aspects of: nature, society, and economy in the hope of revealing their spatial diversity
- Hoping to use this study to provide a reference for the optimization of regional medical resource allocation, and layout planning of public medical facilities
Study Area
- Henan province, interior China
- Population is around 95.5 million people
- Highest rural population in China
- Considered to have low economic development
- Study unit: unincorporated village
- 1,609 rural townships
- 5,321 hospitals
Methodology
- Spatial Accessibility Calculation
- Co-efficient of Variation statistic
- Moran’s I
- Regression Analysis (OLS then GWR)
Results
- Eastern and central regions have good accessibility to medical facilities, while western regions have poor accessibility
- Mountainous areas are at a disadvantage
- All 6 indépendant variables show spatial variability
Rating: 7/10
Reference:
Liu, S., Qin, Y., & Xu, Y. (2019). Inequality and influencing factors of spatial accessibility of medical facilities in rural areas of china: A case study of Henan province. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1833.doi:10.3390/ijerph16101833