Spatial Accessibility Evaluation and Location Optimization of Primary Healthcare in China: A Case Study of Shenzhen

The unbalanced allocation of healthcare resources is a major challenge that hinders access to healthcare. Taking Shenzhen as an example, this study aimed to enhance equity in obtaining healthcare services, through measuring and visualizing the spatial accessibility of community healthcare centers (C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geohealth Vol. 7; no. 5; pp. e2022GH000753 - n/a
Main Authors: Chen, Liutong, Zeng, Huatang, Wu, Liqun, Tian, Qiannan, Zhang, Ning, He, Rongxin, Xue, Hao, Zheng, Junyao, Liu, Jinlin, Liang, Fengchao, Zhu, Bin
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2023
John Wiley and Sons Inc
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Subjects:
Catchment areas
Cities
Computational Geophysics
Cooperation
Data Analysis: Algorithms and Implementation
Data Presentation and Visualization
Gaussian two‐step floating catchment area
GDP
Geohealth
Geospatial
GIS science
Gross Domestic Product
Health care
Health care policy
Health facilities
Health services
Hospitals
Informatics
location optimization
Optimization
primary health care
Public Health
spatial accessibility
Technicians
Topography
Visualization and Portrayal
China
Macao
primary health care
location optimization
Gaussian two‐step floating catchment area
spatial accessibility
ISSN:2471-1403, 2471-1403
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Summary:The unbalanced allocation of healthcare resources is a major challenge that hinders access to healthcare. Taking Shenzhen as an example, this study aimed to enhance equity in obtaining healthcare services, through measuring and visualizing the spatial accessibility of community healthcare centers (CHC), and optimizing CHC geospatial allocation. We used the number of health technicians per 10,000 to represent the CHC's service capacity, combined with resident points and census data to calculate the population the CHC needs to carry, and then analyzed the accessibility based on the Gaussian two‐step floating catchment area method. In 2020, five regions in Shenzhen had better spatial accessibility scores: Nanshan (0.250), Luohu (0.246), Futian (0.244), Dapeng (0.226), and Yantian (0.196). The spatial accessibility of CHCs shows a gradual decrease from the city center to the edge, which is affected by economic and topographic factors. With the support of the maximal covering location problem model, we selected up to 567 candidate locations for the new CHC, which could improve Shenzhen's accessibility score from 0.189 to 0.361 and increase the coverage population by 63.46% within a 15‐min impedance. By introducing spatial techniques and maps, this study provides (a) new evidence for promoting equitable access to primary healthcare services in Shenzhen and (b) a foundation for improving the accessibility of public service facilities in other areas. Plain Language Summary This study aimed to enhance equity in obtaining primary healthcare services for residents. Taking Shenzhen, China as an example, measuring and visualizing the spatial accessibility of community healthcare centers, and optimizing its geospatial allocation to reduce the barriers for residents to healthcare institutions. Key Points The problem of unbalanced allocation of primary healthcare resources is gradually emerging Shenzhen residents have unequal access to primary healthcare within 15‐min Economic and topographic factors affect the inequity of access to primary healthcare in Shenzhen
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ISSN:2471-1403
2471-1403
DOI:10.1029/2022GH000753