Spatial Analysis of Physical Accessibility to Rural Health Care Facilities in Nigeria: A Review (original) (raw)
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This study focused on accessing the variations in the spatial accessibility to health care facilities in Oyo town. The study area was divided into three zones; old Oyo (before 1980), „old-new‟ Oyo (between 1980 and 2000) and new Oyo (between 2000 and 2015). The service area of each health care facility was established using drive time and travel distance. For primary health care facilities, a parameter of 1 to 5 minutes and 1 to 4 km was set while for the secondary 1 to 8 minutes and 1 to 10km was set. The World Health Organization recommended distance of 4km away from health care facilities was also considered. The independent sample t-test results showed that there was no significant difference (t (6) = 0.531; P = 0.610 > 0.05) between the number of private and public health facilities in the study area. More so, out of the 38 modern health care facilities in the study area, 14 were in old Oyo, 15 in "oldnew‟ Oyo and 9 in the new Oyo area. Spatial variation in accessibility to health care facilities was evident in the area. In terms of both drive time and travel distance, majority of the areas in the new Oyo zone were out of the service area of the facilities, with the areas farther away from the city centre invariably deficient in geographic accessibility to health care facilities. The study thus recommended that more modern health care facilities be established in the new Oyo zone.
Accessibility to health care facilities has been identified as a major indicator of development. The importance of adequate health care facilities in providing sustainable rural development can therefore not be overemphasized. Convergence of opinions agreed that lack of basic health care facilities have led to inefficiency in production, declining productivity, reduced life expectance and increased infant mortality rate. In this paper we examine accessibility of people to healthcare facility especially in rural areas. Our findings indicate that the available healthcare facilities are grossly inadequate and their distribution depicts serious inequality. We conclude that there is an urgent need for serious intervention on the part of the government in the provision of health care facilities in the state focused on equitable distribution and accessibility to enhance sustainable rural development.
The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies, 2020
is a significant indicator of social development. Access to facilities is an important component in the overall healthcare system and has a direct impact on the burden of disease that encumbers health conditions in many developing countries. Therefore, measuring access to healthcare facilities contributes to a wider understanding of health systems' performance within and between countries and facilitates the development of evidence-based health policies (Mainardi 2007). It is a fundamental human right to have access to health care services when needed. It is desirable for a government to ensure high quality provision and equal and easy access to fundamental health care services to all citizens. Varying spatial distribution of the population, health care facilities and transportation infrastructure in an area often lead to spatial variations in accessibility to health care facilities, which in turn will result in disadvantaged locations and communities having poor spatial accessibility to needed health care facilities. In many health care systems, adequate, equitable and easy access to health care facilities is often considered one of the main objectives (Powell & Exworthy, 2003). To ensure equal and easy access it is essential to ensure that the population, health care facilities and the transportation infrastructure are positioned in a manner that facilitates high spatial accessibility. Accessibility to healthcare is the ability of a population to obtain a specified set of health care services. In this context, geographic accessibility is often referred to as spatial or physical accessibility (Halden et al. 2000). Physical accessibility addresses the complex relationship between the distribution of the population and the supply of healthcare facilities (Ebener et al. 2005). A health care facility is defined as all units owned by public and private authorities as well as voluntary organizations and which provides health care services, hospitals, and health and maternity centers. Consequently, Onokerhoroye (1999) defined health care facility as all units owned by public and private authorities as well as voluntary organizations and which provides health care services including hospitals, health and maternity centers. Healthy population and access to healthcare services are significant factors influencing economic development and
This study was aimed at a Spatial Analysis of Health Care Accessibility and Utilization among Rural Households in Kogi State, Nigeria. Primary data employed in this study were obtained with the aid of well-structured questionnaires. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of respondents. The analytical techniques used in this study included descriptive statistics and Healthcare Accessibility Index. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to describe the sources and uses of healthcare facilities in relation to socioeconomic characteristics as well as the level of utilization of health care services. Results obtained in this study revealed that 58% of the respondents had access to health care services while only 42.50% utilized these services. Findings in this study also revealed that 71% of the household heads were males while the remaining 29% were females. However, 41% of the male headed households have access to healthcare services compared to 17% of the female headed households. Furthermore, 71% of the respondents were in their economic active age (≤ 50 years). About 75.55% of the respondents within this age bracket accesses and utilizes healthcare service more than the elderly ones. Exactly 43.50% had no formal education while 6, 23.5, 11.5, and 15.5% had adult, primary, secondary and tertiary education respectively. Thirteen percent (13.0%) of those with primary education had access to health care services while 78.57% out of these utilized the healthcare services. Furthermore, 24.5% of those with no formal education had access to healthcare service while 69.23% of the respondents utilized healthcare services. Majority (40.5%) of the rural households lived 5 to 9 km to a public health center with 21% having access to healthcare facilities and 85.7% utilizing the facilities. Eleven percent of respondents living 4 km from the healthcare service provider have access to healthcare facilities while 90.09% of the respondents utilized it. About 13% of the respondent who lives 10 to 14 km from healthcare service had access while 61.11% utilized the services. Forty-three percent (43.75%) of respondents living more than 14 km to their healthcare providers makes use of the available healthcare facilities. The result, therefore, indicates that utilization of available health facilities increases with proximity to the health centers. Seven percent (7%) of respondents have family size of 1-4 members per household, whereas only 60% of the respondents within this group with access to healthcare facilities utilized it. Furthermore, those with household size above 14 members have the highest health service utilization with 85.71%. This study has shown that there is unequal distribution of health facilities as well as low level of accessibility of household to medical facilities in the study area. To this end, governments at all tiers should ensure equitable accessibility to health care delivery across the rural areas by deploying more medical and Para-medical staffs to the rural areas. Rural development policies should promote the creation of enabling environment to enhance participation in modern health care delivery in rural areas. There is also a serious need for sensitization programme to create awareness about the importance of using modern healthcare facilities among the rural dwellers.
AAUA Journal of Environmental Design and Management, 2023
Rural transport promotes socioeconomic development by complementing access to health facilities in rural areas. Most rural environments are faced with poor road networks and transport infrastructural facilities. These challenges have greatly hampered the provision of adequate and timely responses to various health issues in rural areas. This study, therefore, examined the nature of transport infrastructure and the effects of rural access to health facilities in the study area. A simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of 21 rural settlements. A systematic random sampling technique was used for the selection of houses at the selected rural settlements using an interval of three houses to administer 495 structured questionnaire to the household heads in the study area. The observed socioeconomic characteristics in the study area revealed that 57.4% of the respondents were female, 60.6% were self-employed, and 43.04% had income less than ₦20,000. The results showed that the effects of rural roads on accessibility to health facilities in the area include the cost of transportation and waiting time at the bus stop. Consequently, rural dwellers without alternative routes were inhibited from making use of health facilities. The paper, therefore, recommends that there should be a synergy between the government at the local level and the rural inhabitants in the form of communal efforts on regular maintenance and rehabilitation of these roads for easy accessibility and to further link the settlements that had already been cutoff either to the market or other facilities in the area. In the same vein, there should be pragmatic and combined efforts of the two other tiers of government to provide an efficient health care delivery for the rural inhabitant to improve their quality of life.
Background:There is geographic variation in accessibility to health care facilities and areas where accessibility to health care facilities is low due to spatial differences in population distribution, transportation infrastructure, and distribution of health care facilities. The aim of this paper was to examine the spatio-physical accessibility to rural healthcare facilities in Nangere Local Government Area of Yobe State. Materials and Methods: The research was conducted using stratified random sampling, with five (5) settlements chosen at random from each of the study political wards. The Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and Global positioning system (GPS). The questionnaires were administered by means of face-toface method of data collection. The GPS (Garmin 76CSx) was used to record the geographic locations of the health facilities and 146 villages across the eleven (11) political wards. The geospatial data was analyzed in ArcGIS 10.8 version's environment. The questionnaires were sorted, coded, and processed using SPSS 22.0 software. Results: The study findings revealed that the majority of the respondent's walks on foot to access health facility in their area; this is because the area lacks means of transportation, as government ban the use of motorcycles which are the area's primary mode of transportation. The physical usability was determined using the spider diagram algorithm and ring buffer technique. The minimum distance between the settlements and the nearest facility in each ward was 0.107 kilometers, while the maximum distance was 12.829 kilometers. Conclusion: Even if the travel distance is just a few kilometers, the study concluded that spatial mobility can be low for residents who live in areas without sufficient transportation services.The study suggested that the Nangere Local Government increase overall accessibility to health care facilities by either enhancing public transit or relocating health care facilities according to the spatial and needs of the local population.
The rural areas is generally characterized by low population density, low level of economic activities and traffic; long distances between nodal points, such as service centres; high unit costs for service delivery, operations, maintenance, and often difficult geographic and weather conditions. Rural communities face transport constraints which limit their ability to reduce their poverty and in order to satisfy their need for greater access to health, education and every possible opportunities, ease of physical accessibility and freedom of movement are top priorities. Questionnaire was administered on a randomly selected sample of 200 residents in the area. Of the 200 questionnaires administered, 182 questionnaires were received for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Secondary data was also sourced to serve as complement to the primary data, thus allowing for a robust research. Descriptive statistical tools such as percentages were adopted to present the socioeconomic characteristics in the area. Findings showed that the about 52.2% of sampled population are male, 12.1 % are degree holders, 39% of respondents are young within the 25 – 35 yrs age bracket, 70.3% married. Also, that majority of the respondents (54.4%) said that there are rural health facilities in their area, while about 78% of the respondents observed that road network in the area is either bad / very bad (poor). It was established that lack of transport infrastructure coupled with poor road maintenance were seen as the leading causes of inaccessibility of the area.
Interdisciplinary Journal of Rural and Community Studies
This paper examined the distribution pattern of health centres to determine the poverty level due to spatial variability of accessibility to health care facilities in rural areas of Ayedaade Local Government, Osun State, Nigeria. Three hundred sixty-eight household heads from 4,539 households in 25 selected villages were sampled based on Slovin’s principle. Buffer and average nearest neighbourhood analyses were performed in ArcGIS 10.4 software to determine the distance covered to the nearest health centre and the spatial location pattern of health centres. $1.90 per day international poverty line, 5 Likert Scale, ANOVA, and correlation were used. The inverse relationship at r = - 0.447 revealed that the more the poverty, the less the poor's capability to cater to their health service. It calls for some forms of intervention by the government to reduce health services cost for rural dwellers.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES IN CALABAR METROPOLIS CROSS RIVER STATE NIGERIA
GOMBE STATE UNIVERSITY, 2022
Varying terrain characteristics, politically motivated awkward distribution, poor road connectivity, and overpopulation tend to result in spatial inequality in the distribution and accessibility to Health care facilities (HCFs) in developing countries like Nigeria. Thus, this study analyzed the spatial distribution and accessibility to health care facilities in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria. For this purpose, data on HCF from the Cross River State Ministry of Health were obtained. Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers were used to collect geographic coordinates of the HCFs, which were imported into the ArcGIS 10.3 version to produce relevant maps of the distribution of HCFs. The Nearest Neighbour Analysis (NNA) technique was used to determine the spatial pattern of the physical health care facilities. The spatial accessibility to HCFs was determined using the Time travelled to HCFs and the distance between settlements and HCFs. It was observed that wards 8,9,3,5 in Calabar municipality and ward 12 in Calabar South Local Government Area (L.G.A) have low levels of accessibility to HCFs because the distance traveled to HCFs is greater than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 4km. However, patients inwards 4,10,6 in Calabar municipality were highly accessible to HCFs. This is the same observation in wards 9 and 11 in Calabar south L.G.A since the distance traveled to most of the neighboring HCFs is less than 4km. The NNA showed a critical value of-2.808889 at 0.00497significance level, indicating the distribution pattern of health care facilities in Calabar Metropolis to be significantly clustered.
Proceedings of INTCESS 2022- 9th International Conference on Education & Education of Social Sciences, 2022
Spatial distribution inequity in health care facilities, including primary health care, has been recognized as a wedge towards effective delivery of such services in many countries, including Nigeria. Healthcare facilities are vehicles to attain an acceptable level of health that will enable everyone to lead a socially and economically productive life. One of the core challenges facing the Nigerian health care system is poor access to health facilities, worsened by poverty, poor road networks and transportation. The resultant consequences are high morbidity and mortality in most parts of the country, leading to low economic performance. Access serves as the bridge between availability and utilization. For Sustainable Development Goal 3, people should have access to health facilities closer to their residence. The study employed secondary data and geographic information system mapping in the investigation. The paper aimed to explore the locational distribution of existing health facilities in Ogun State and make informed recommendations for policy intervention in the study area. The study reveals that the distribution pattern of public healthcare facilities in the State is not uniform either at tertiary, secondary, or primary levels. And this scenario negates the essence of providing health care facilities within 5 kilometers distance envisaged by WHO and general health status. Densely populated health facilities were seen in local governments with high populations, industries and Local Government capitals. In contrast, others have fewer health care facilities, perhaps due to their rural and remote nature. Thus, the government needs to ensure even distribution of health facilities and motivated personnel, drugs, and deliverables in the study area to ensure optimal spatial efficiency.