Identifying areas of primary care shortage in urban Ohio

This study considers both spatial and a-spatial variables in examining accessibility to primary healthcare in the three largest urban areas of Ohio (Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati). Spatial access emphasizes the importance of geographic barriers between individuals and primary care physicians, while a-spatial variables include non-geographic barriers or facilitators such as age, sex, race, income, social class, education, living conditions and language skills. Population and socioeconomic data were obtained from the 2000 Census, and primary care physician data for 2008 was provided by the Ohio Medical Board. We first implemented a two-step method based on a floating catchment area using Geographic Information Systems to measure spatial accessibility in terms of 30-minute travel times. We then used principal component analysis to group various socio-demographic variables into three groups: (1) socioeconomic disadvantages, (2) living conditions, and (3) healthcare needs. Finally, spatial and a-spatial variables were integrated to identify areas with poor access to primary care in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.