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. 2022 Jun 4;19(11):6897.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116897.

Facility or Transport Inequality? Decomposing Healthcare Accessibility Inequality in Shenzhen, China

Zhuolin Tao  1 , Qi Wang  2
Affiliations

Facility or Transport Inequality? Decomposing Healthcare Accessibility Inequality in Shenzhen, China

Zhuolin Tao et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Accessibility to healthcare services is crucial for residents' wellbeing. Numerous studies have revealed significant spatial inequality in healthcare accessibility across various contexts. However, it still remains unclear whether the inequality is caused by the unbalanced spatial distribution of healthcare facilities or by unequal transport access to them. This study decomposes inequality in healthcare accessibility into facility- and transport-driven inequality by comparing scenarios of healthcare accessibility, which consider various combinations of multidimensional components of accessibility using different distance measures. Using a case study in Shenzhen, this study reveals that both facility distribution and transport access substantially contribute to spatial inequality in healthcare accessibility. Facility distribution accounts for 61.3% and 50.8% of the overall accessibility inequality for driving and transit modes, respectively. The remaining inequality is induced by imbalanced mobility provided by transport networks. Furthermore, the impact of transport component on healthcare accessibility is unevenly distributed. This study highlights that both facility- and transport-related countermeasures should be considered to improve the accessibility and equality of healthcare services. It provides transferable methods for quantitatively decomposing facility- and transport-driven inequality in accessibility to healthcare or other facilities.

Keywords: facility distribution; healthcare accessibility; inequality; transport; travel time.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research framework in this study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Illustration of Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The distribution of hospitals and administrative divisions in Shenzhen.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Metro and road networks in Shenzhen.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The distribution of healthcare accessibility by various distance measures.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The distribution of the ratios of accessibility by various distance measures.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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