IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v87y2019ics026483771831010x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The benefits of a link-based assessment of health services accessibility: Unveiling gaps in Central Region of Portugal

Author

Listed:
  • Freiria, Susana
  • Tavares, Alexandre O.
  • Julião, Rui Pedro

Abstract

Accessibility plays a fundamental role in public policies. One of the main goals of decision makers is to promote equal access of the population to critical infrastructures. However, different accessibility approaches (e.g. method of aggregation) lead to different conclusions to the same case study; moreover, what is a good measure of accessibility and how to apply it in practice is a question to be answered. This study presents a new approach to assess accessibility in a link-based. One of the goals of this work is to show that a link-based assessment is more useful to policy strategies than a catchment area based assessments that have been widely used. The methodology is applied to the accessibility assessment of the parishes to the District Hospitals in the Central Region (Portugal); the link and polygon based approaches are carried out and compared. Results demonstrate that a link-based analysis allows the identification of accessibility gaps across geographical areas and population groups. The accessibility in a catchment area basis can cover up some shortcomings in the service (in this case the hospitals) provided to the population. The work here presented can be useful for politicians and technicians, since it allows to accurately identify unserved and underserved areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Freiria, Susana & Tavares, Alexandre O. & Julião, Rui Pedro, 2019. "The benefits of a link-based assessment of health services accessibility: Unveiling gaps in Central Region of Portugal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s026483771831010x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026483771831010X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tanser, Frank & Gijsbertsen, Brice & Herbst, Kobus, 2006. "Modelling and understanding primary health care accessibility and utilization in rural South Africa: An exploration using a geographical information system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 691-705, August.
    2. El-Geneidy, Ahmed & Levinson, David & Diab, Ehab & Boisjoly, Genevieve & Verbich, David & Loong, Charis, 2016. "The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 302-316.
    3. Bocarejo S., Juan Pablo & Oviedo H., Daniel Ricardo, 2012. "Transport accessibility and social inequities: a tool for identification of mobility needs and evaluation of transport investments," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 142-154.
    4. Soora Rasouli & Harry Timmermans, 2014. "Activity-based models of travel demand: promises, progress and prospects," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 31-60, March.
    5. Freiria, Susana & Ribeiro, Bernardete & Tavares, Alexandre O., 2015. "Understanding road network dynamics: Link-based topological patterns," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 55-66.
    6. Siegel, Martin & Koller, Daniela & Vogt, Verena & Sundmacher, Leonie, 2016. "Developing a composite index of spatial accessibility across different health care sectors: A German example," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 205-212.
    7. Neutens, Tijs, 2015. "Accessibility, equity and health care: review and research directions for transport geographers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 14-27.
    8. Michael K. Lindell & Ronald W. Perry, 2012. "The Protective Action Decision Model: Theoretical Modifications and Additional Evidence," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 616-632, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yoonchae Yoon & Jina Park, 2022. "Equitable City in an Aging Society: Public Transportation-Based Primary Care Accessibility in Seoul, Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Shang, Qingxue & Guo, Xiaodong & Li, Jichao & Wang, Tao, 2022. "Post-earthquake health care service accessibility assessment framework and its application in a medium-sized city," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Levinson & Hao Wu, 2020. "Towards a general theory of access," Working Papers 2022-01, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    2. Gabriella Vitorino Guimarães & Tálita Floriano Santos & Vicente Aprigliano Fernandes & Jorge Eliécer Córdoba Maquilón & Marcelino Aurélio Vieira da Silva, 2020. "Assessment for the Social Sustainability and Equity under the Perspective of Accessibility to Jobs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Nazari Adli, Saeid & Donovan, Stuart, 2018. "Right to the city: Applying justice tests to public transport investments," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 56-65.
    4. Mengying Cui & David Levinson, 2020. "Primal and Dual Access," Working Papers 2022-01, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    5. Luz, Gregorio & Barboza, Matheus Henrique Cunha & da Silva Portugal, Licinio & Giannotti, Mariana & van Wee, Bert, 2022. "Does better accessibility help to reduce social exclusion? Evidence from the City of São Paulo, Brazil," SocArXiv 2p896, Center for Open Science.
    6. Ahuja, Richa & Tiwari, Geetam, 2021. "Evolving term “accessibility” in spatial systems: Contextual evaluation of indicators," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 4-11.
    7. Goliszek Sławomir, 2022. "The potential accessibility to workplaces and working-age population by means of public and private car transport in Szczecin," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 26(1), pages 31-41, January.
    8. Silver, Kelli & Lopes, André & Vale, David & da Costa, Nuno Marques, 2023. "The inequality effects of public transport fare: The case of Lisbon's fare reform," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Giannotti, Mariana & Tomasiello, Diego B. & Bittencourt, Taina A., 2022. "The bias in estimating accessibility inequalities using gravity-based metrics," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. Mayaud, Jerome & Anderson, Sam & Tran, Martino & Radic, Valentina, 2018. "Insights from self-organizing maps for predicting accessibility demand for healthcare infrastructure," SocArXiv yngx4, Center for Open Science.
    11. Sławomir Goliszek, 2021. "GIS tools and programming languages for creating models of public and private transport potential accessibility in Szczecin, Poland," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 115-137, January.
    12. Acheampong, Ransford A. & Asabere, Stephen Boahen, 2022. "Urban expansion and differential accessibility by car and public transport in the Greater Kumasi city-region, Ghana—A geospatial modelling approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    13. Yu, Lijie & Cui, Mengying, 2023. "How subway network affects transit accessibility and equity: A case study of Xi'an metropolitan area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Anders Bondemark & Henrik Andersson & Anders Wretstrand & Karin Brundell-Freij, 2021. "Is it expensive to be poor? Public transport in Sweden," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2709-2734, October.
    15. Snyman, Lourens & Coetzee, Serena, 2024. "Measuring geographic accessibility in data poor rural areas by augmenting the road network with a triangular irregular network – A case study in the O.R. Tambo District Municipality of the Eastern Cap," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    16. Yoonchae Yoon & Jina Park, 2022. "Equitable City in an Aging Society: Public Transportation-Based Primary Care Accessibility in Seoul, Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Chen, Yue & Jia, Shunping & Xu, Qi & Xiao, Zhongsheng & Zhang, Shujing, 2023. "Measuring the dynamic accessibility to COVID-19 testing sites in the 15-min city: A focus on service congestion and mobility difference," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    18. Giovanni Vecchio & Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken & Bryan Castillo & Stefan Steiniger, 2024. "Fair transport policies for older people: accessibility and affordability of public transport in Santiago, Chile," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 689-715, April.
    19. Luz, Gregorio & Barboza, Matheus Henrique Cunha & da Silva Portugal, Licinio & Giannotti, Mariana & van Wee, Bert, 2022. "Does better accessibility help to reduce social exclusion? Evidence from the City of São Paulo, Brazil," SocArXiv 2p896_v1, Center for Open Science.
    20. Dominik Ziemke & Johan W. Joubert & Kai Nagel, 2018. "Accessibility in a Post-Apartheid City: Comparison of Two Approaches for Accessibility Computations," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 241-271, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s026483771831010x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.