Use of an E2SFCA Method to Measure and Analyse Spatial Accessibility to Medical Services for Elderly People in Wuhan, China

Jing Luo, Guangping Chen, Chang Li, Bingyan Xia, Xuan Sun and Siyun Chen
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Jing Luo: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Guangping Chen: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Chang Li: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Bingyan Xia: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Xuan Sun: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Siyun Chen: Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, Central China Normal University, No.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Current studies on measuring the accessibility of medical services for the elderly (AMSE) have ignored the potential competition among supply and demand and the distance decay laws. Hence, an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method (i.e., the road network-based Gaussian 2SFCA method) is proposed to calculate AMSE scores after considering different types of roads, including urban rail transit, freeways, major roads, minor roads and rural roads. Based on the first National Geographic Conditions Monitoring (NGCM) data, this study took Wuhan, China, as a case study and assessed the variation of AMSE using two different threshold times (i.e., Platinum Ten and Golden Hour). Next, global (i.e., sensitivity and hot spot analysis) and local analyses (i.e., three regional area internal comparisons) of AMSE scores were conducted to accurately identify details in the variation of spatial accessibility. It was observed that the E2SFCA method could be easily applied to measure AMSE. The results showed that 48.63% of the elderly population in Wuhan had a higher or the highest level of medical accessibility in “Platinum Ten”, while 72.97% had a higher or the highest level in the “Golden Hour”, and hot spots of AMSE scores were located in central urban areas and presented an enclosure structure using both threshold travel times, which could provide guidance to governments or planners on issues of spatial planning and identifying elderly medical services shortage areas.

Keywords: ageing population; medical services; spatial accessibility; enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA); Wuhan city (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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