Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea

This study explored questions of (1) whether certain areas of South Korea experienced inequal accessibility to public health centers, private hospitals/clinics, and general hospitals by car and public transportation using gaussian mixture models (GMM) and (2) whether socially disadvantaged socioecon...

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Autor principal: Lee, Sangwan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9601919/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36292496
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10102049
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author Lee, Sangwan
author_facet Lee, Sangwan
author_sort Lee, Sangwan
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description This study explored questions of (1) whether certain areas of South Korea experienced inequal accessibility to public health centers, private hospitals/clinics, and general hospitals by car and public transportation using gaussian mixture models (GMM) and (2) whether socially disadvantaged socioeconomic groups faced disproportionate burdens on accessibility to the multi-tier healthcare services employing ordinary least square regression models (OLS). This study used nationwide accessibility indicators in South Korea measured by Korea Transport Institute in 2019. The main findings were as follows: First, the results of the GMM indicate that the degree of accessibility to healthcare services was significantly lower in rural, mountainous, and seaside locations compared to metropolitan areas. Second, there was more considerable inequality in public transportation accessibility than car accessibility. Third, the findings of the OLS reveal a significant relationship between accessibility indicators and socioeconomic variables, such as age, gender, disability, and residential location, which indicates socioeconomic inequality in accessibility in South Korea. This study contributes to shedding light on understanding the spatial and socioeconomic inequality in accessibility across the nation and offering policy implications.
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spelling pubmed-96019192022-10-27 Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea Lee, Sangwan Healthcare (Basel) Article This study explored questions of (1) whether certain areas of South Korea experienced inequal accessibility to public health centers, private hospitals/clinics, and general hospitals by car and public transportation using gaussian mixture models (GMM) and (2) whether socially disadvantaged socioeconomic groups faced disproportionate burdens on accessibility to the multi-tier healthcare services employing ordinary least square regression models (OLS). This study used nationwide accessibility indicators in South Korea measured by Korea Transport Institute in 2019. The main findings were as follows: First, the results of the GMM indicate that the degree of accessibility to healthcare services was significantly lower in rural, mountainous, and seaside locations compared to metropolitan areas. Second, there was more considerable inequality in public transportation accessibility than car accessibility. Third, the findings of the OLS reveal a significant relationship between accessibility indicators and socioeconomic variables, such as age, gender, disability, and residential location, which indicates socioeconomic inequality in accessibility in South Korea. This study contributes to shedding light on understanding the spatial and socioeconomic inequality in accessibility across the nation and offering policy implications. MDPI 2022-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9601919/ /pubmed/36292496 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10102049 Text en © 2022 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lee, Sangwan
Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title_full Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title_fullStr Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title_full_unstemmed Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title_short Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Accessibility to Healthcare Services in South Korea
title_sort spatial and socioeconomic inequalities in accessibility to healthcare services in south korea
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9601919/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36292496
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10102049
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