Do Primary Healthcare Facilities in More Remote Areas Provide More Medical Services? Spatial Evidence from Rural Western China
Primary healthcare institutions (PHIs) in China have experienced a sizable decline in medical services in recent years. Despite the large regional disparities in China, there is a lack of evidence on the differential patterns of medical services offered by PHIs, especially from a spatial perspective. This study examines whether residents in more remote areas use more medical services offered by township healthcare centers (THCs), a main type of PHIs. Linking medical visits to 923 THCs in a western Chinese province in 2020 with the driving time and geographic coordinates from the Gaode map, a leading map navigation provider in China, we applied a multilevel linear model and a geographically weighted regression to examine spatial heterogeneity in medical service utilization. We showed that a one-hour increase in the shortest driving time between THCs and the local county hospitals was associated with an average 6% increase in THCs outpatient visits and a 0.6% increase in THCs inpatient visits. Our findings suggest that THCs located in more remote areas provided more medical services, especially outpatient services
Year of publication: |
[2023]
|
---|---|
Authors: | Shen, Chi ; Lai, Sha ; Deng, Qiwei ; Cao, Dan ; Zhao, Dantong ; Zhao, Yaxin ; Zhou, Zhongliang ; Dong, Wanyue ; Chen, Xi |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Gesundheitsversorgung | Health care | China | Ländlicher Raum | Rural area | Räumliche Verteilung | Spatial distribution | Periphere Region | Periphery | Basisgesundheitsversorgung | Primary health care | Gesundheitswesen | Health care system |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (39 p) |
---|---|
Series: | IZA Discussion Paper ; No. 16332 |
Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | 10.2139/ssrn.4521248 [DOI] |
Classification: | I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets ; i14 ; I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; R53 - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014346209