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
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Authors: | Shen, Chi ; Lai, Sha ; Deng, Qiwei ; Cao, Dan ; Zhao, Dantong ; Zhao, Yaxin ; Zhou, Zhongliang ; Dong, Wanyue ; Chen, Xi |
Publisher: |
Essen : Global Labor Organization (GLO) |
Subject: | Primary healthcare institutions | Spatial remote | Medical Service | China |
Saved in:
freely available
Series: | GLO Discussion Paper ; 1309 |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Type of publication (narrower categories): | Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | 1854989170 [GVK] hdl:10419/273427 [Handle] RePEc:zbw:glodps:1309 [RePEc] |
Source: |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014310784