Dataset Information

Spatial Accessibility to Health Care Services: Identifying under-Serviced Neighbourhoods in Canadian Urban Areas.

ABSTRACT: Urban environments can influence many aspects of health and well-being and access to health care is one of them. Access to primary health care (PHC) in urban settings is a pressing research and policy issue in Canada. Most research on access to healthcare is focused on national and provincial levels in Canada; there is a need to advance current understanding to local scales such as neighbourhoods.This study examines spatial accessibility to family physicians using the Three-Step Floating Catchment Area (3SFCA) method to identify neighbourhoods with poor geographical access to PHC services and their spatial patterning across 14 Canadian urban settings. An index of spatial access to PHC services, representing an accessibility score (physicians-per-1000 population), was calculated for neighborhoods using a 3km road network distance. Information about primary health care providers (this definition does not include mobile services such as health buses or nurse practitioners or less distributed services such as emergency rooms) used in this research was gathered from publicly available and routinely updated sources (i.e. provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons). An integrated geocoding approach was used to establish PHC locations.The results found that the three methods, Simple Ratio, Neighbourhood Simple Ratio, and 3SFCA that produce City level access scores are positively correlated with each other. Comparative analyses were performed both within and across urban settings to examine disparities in distributions of PHC services. It is found that neighbourhoods with poor accessibility scores in the main urban settings across Canada have further disadvantages in relation to population high health care needs.The results of this study show substantial variations in geographical accessibility to PHC services both within and among urban areas. This research enhances our understanding of spatial accessibility to health care services at the neighbourhood level. In particular, the results show that the low access neighbourhoods tend to be clustered in the neighbourhoods at the urban periphery and immediately surrounding the downtown area.

SUBMITTER: Shah TI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5172578 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Spatial Accessibility to Health Care Services: Identifying under-Serviced Neighbourhoods in Canadian Urban Areas.

Shah Tayyab Ikram TI Bell Scott S Wilson Kathi K

PloS one 20161220 12

<h4>Background</h4>Urban environments can influence many aspects of health and well-being and access to health care is one of them. Access to primary health care (PHC) in urban settings is a pressing research and policy issue in Canada. Most research on access to healthcare is focused on national and provincial levels in Canada; there is a need to advance current understanding to local scales such as neighbourhoods.<h4>Methods</h4>This study examines spatial accessibility to family physicians us ...[more]

PMID: 27997577

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Project description:BackgroundResearch has shown that neighbourhood walkability is associated with small differences in physical activity; however, the health impacts of these small differences have been questioned. We examined the size of the association of walkability with accelerometer-measured physical activity in a large, national-level Canadian population, and compared results to physical activity levels recommended in international guidelines. Our primary objective was to investigate the direction and size of the differences in physical activity that were related to walkability, and whether these differences depended on age.MethodsParticipants were included from among respondents to the 2007-2011 Canadian Health Measures Surveys who lived in urban areas and were aged 6-79 years. The Canadian Health Measures Surveys are ongoing cross-sectional surveys of a Canada-wide population. Respondents were divided into quintiles based on Street Smart Walk Score® values of their census dissemination areas. For all respondents and age subgroups, we used covariate-adjusted generalized linear models to estimate differences between quintiles in accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time.ResultsWe included 7180 respondents. Differences in participant MVPA between highest and lowest Street Smart Walk Score quintiles were 3.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] -3.2 to 9.6) minutes/day for ages 6-11 years, 11.4 (95% CI 5.3 to 17.4) minutes/day for ages 12-17 years, 9.9 (95% CI 2.4 to 17.4) minutes/day for ages 18-29 years, 14.9 (95% CI 10.2 to 19.6) minutes/day for ages 30-44 years, 11.5 (95% CI 6.7 to 16.3) minutes/day for ages 45-64 years and 6.9 (95% CI 3.1 to 10.8) minutes/day for ages 65-79 years. There were no significant differences in sedentary time in any age group.InterpretationIn all groups except the youngest, participants in the most walkable areas did significantly more MVPA than those in the least walkable areas. For several age groups, this difference was approximately one-half to two-thirds of the amount recommended in guidelines for physical activity. Substantially higher MVPA levels suggest that residents of highly walkable areas may have greater health benefits.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic studies have linked exposure to traffic-generated air and noise pollution with a wide range of adverse health effects in children. Children spend a large portion of time at school, and both air pollution and noise are elevated in close proximity to roads, so school location may be an important determinant of exposure. No studies have yet examined the proximity of schools to major roads in Canadian cities. METHODS: Data on public elementary schools in Canada's 10 most populous cities were obtained from online databases. School addresses were geocoded and proximity to the nearest major road, defined using a standardized national road classification scheme, was calculated for each school. Based on measurements of nitrogen oxide concentrations, ultrafine particle counts, and noise levels in three Canadian cities we conservatively defined distances < 75 m from major roads as the zone of primary interest. Census data at the city and neighborhood levels were used to evaluate relationships between school proximity to major roads, urban density, and indicators of socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Addresses were obtained for 1,556 public elementary schools, 95% of which were successfully geocoded. Across all 10 cities, 16.3% of schools were located within 75 m of a major road, with wide variability between cities. Schools in neighborhoods with higher median income were less likely to be near major roads (OR per $20,000 increase: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.00), while schools in densely populated neighborhoods were more frequently close to major roads (OR per 1,000 dwellings/km²: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.16). Over 22% of schools in the lowest neighborhood income quintile were close to major roads, compared to 13% of schools in the highest income quintile. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial fraction of students at public elementary schools in Canada, particularly students attending schools in low income neighborhoods, may be exposed to elevated levels of air pollution and noise while at school. As a result, the locations of schools may negatively impact the healthy development and academic performance of a large number of Canadian children.

Project description:Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses, cancelation of public events and schooling, social distancing, limitations on the size of social gatherings, and travel restrictions. During this period of restrictions, we conducted a study assessing the importance of urban and peri-urban forests and other natural areas to people living in and around the city of Burlington, Vermont, USA. We evaluated the self-reported use and changes in personal importance related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. We received over 400 responses to our field survey. The results show that 69.0% of the respondents had increased or greatly increased their visitation rate to our natural areas and urban forests, and 80.6% of respondents considered that the importance of these areas, and access to them, either increased or greatly increased. Moreover 25.8% of the sample had either never, or very rarely accessed their local natural areas before the pandemic, but 69.2% of the first time or infrequent visitors reported that having access to these areas during COVID-19 as 'very important'. People reported that these areas were important for a wide range of activities from exercise to birding, but also reported values related to reducing stress in a time of global chaos. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Experts in zoonotic disease predict the potential for more frequent pandemic events, thus predicating the importance for continued funding for, maintenance of, and improved access to, natural areas to our largely urban civilization.

Dataset Information

Spatial Accessibility to Health Care Services: Identifying under-Serviced Neighbourhoods in Canadian Urban Areas.

Publications

Spatial Accessibility to Health Care Services: Identifying under-Serviced Neighbourhoods in Canadian Urban Areas.

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