Measuring Accessibility to Primary Health Care Across the Urban-rural Continuum in the Province of Alberta

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atmire.migration.oldid4263
dc.contributor.advisorBertazzon, Stefania
dc.contributor.authorBarrett, Olesya
dc.contributor.committeememberMiller, Byron
dc.contributor.committeememberHemmelgarn, Brenda
dc.contributor.committeememberPatel, Alka
dc.contributor.committeememberYiannakoulias, Nikolaos
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-03T14:26:38Z
dc.date.available2016-05-03T14:26:38Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.date.submitted2016en
dc.description.abstractThe proper estimation of accessibility is necessary to understand the issue of the urban-rural divide in access health care. The main concern with the previously developed accessibility measures is that the urban-rural continuum is treated as a dichotomous variable, while many degrees of rurality exist. While many studies attempted to include a distance decay function to address local travel patterns, it is usually arbitrary and may not exactly reflect the reality. This project is an attempt to improve the current methodology and make it more suitable for provincial settings that include various degrees of rurality. The past records of health care utilization are analyzed and distance decay coefficients are extracted for each type of urban and rural area. These coefficients are used to enhance a commonly used two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method to estimate accessibility scores. In addition, health needs and mobility measures are added to the model. The result of this enhanced methodology is compared to other methods where distance decay is used. The proposed method consistently shows better and more accurate results. The alternative methods often underestimate accessibility, especially in remote areas. The distance decay function derived from actual utilization data also allows use of this approach for large areas such as a Canadian province.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBarrett, O. (2016). Measuring Accessibility to Primary Health Care Across the Urban-rural Continuum in the Province of Alberta (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26852en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/26852
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11023/2929
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectPublic Health
dc.subjectStatistics
dc.subject.classificationhealth care accessibilityen_US
dc.subject.classificationdistance decayen_US
dc.subject.classificationrural-urban continuumen_US
dc.titleMeasuring Accessibility to Primary Health Care Across the Urban-rural Continuum in the Province of Alberta
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineGeography
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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