Spatial Disparities and Correlated Variables of Community Care Facility Accessibility in Rural Areas of China

Yang Yu, Yijin Wu, Xin Xu, Yun Chen, Xiaobo Tian, Li Wang and Siyun Chen
Additional contact information
Yang Yu: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Yijin Wu: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Xin Xu: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Yun Chen: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Xiaobo Tian: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Li Wang: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Siyun Chen: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: With the increasing aging of the world’s population, research on the equitable allocation of elderly care facilities has received increasing attention, but measuring the accessibility of community care facilities (CCFs) in rural areas has received little attention. In this study, which covered 7985 CCFs in 223,877 villages, we measured the accessibility of CCFs in rural areas of Hubei Province by using the nearest distance method. Based on the accessibility calculation, the spatial disparities and agglomeration characteristics of spatial accessibility were analyzed, and the correlated variables related to the accessibility were analyzed from both natural environment and socioeconomic aspects by employing a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Our results show that 87% of villages have a distance cost of less than 7121 m and 81% of townships have a distance cost of less than 5114 m; good spatial accessibility is present in the eastern and central regions, while poor spatial accessibility is shown in a small number of areas in the west. The results from the clustering analysis show that the hot spot areas are mainly clustered in the western mountainous areas and that the cold spot areas are mainly clustered around Wuhan city. We also observed that area, elevation, population aged 65 and above, and number of villages are significantly correlated with accessibility. The results of this study can be used to provide a reference for configuration optimization and layout planning of elderly care facilities in rural areas.

Keywords: community care facilities; spatial accessibility; rural areas; the nearest distance method; Hubei Province (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13400/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13400/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13400-:d:694424

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().