Measuring Spatial Patterns of Health Care Facilities and Their Relationships with Hypertension Inpatients in a Network-Constrained Urban System

Zhensheng Wang and Ke Nie
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Zhensheng Wang: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Land and Resources of China, Shenzhen 518034, China
Ke Nie: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Land and Resources of China, Shenzhen 518034, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-22

Abstract: There is evidence of a strong correlation between inequality in health care access and disparities in chronic health conditions. Equal access to health care is an important indicator for overall population health, and the urban road network has a significant influence on the spatial distribution of urban service facilities. In this study, the network kernel density estimation was applied to detect the hot spots of health care service along the road network of Shenzhen, and we further explored the influences of population and road density on the aggregate intensity distributions at the community level, using spatial stratified heterogeneity analyses. Then, we measured the spatial clustering patterns of health care facilities in each of the ten districts of Shenzhen using the network K-function, and the interrelationships between health care facilities and hypertension patients. The results can be used to examine the reasonability of the existing health care system, which would be valuable for developing more effective prevention, control, and treatment of chronic health conditions. Further research should consider the influence of nonspatial factors on health care service access.

Keywords: health care facilities; hypertensive inpatient; health care accessibility; network-constrained urban system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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