Analysis of the Elderly’s Preferences for Choosing Medical Service Facilities from the Perspective of Accessibility: A Case Study of Tertiary General Hospitals in Hefei, China

Abstract

The accessibility of medical service facilities is a vital influence on elderly people choosing medical treatment. Encouraging residents to seek nearby medical treatment can facilitate the rational layout and diversion of urban medical facilities and reduce health resource waste. However, due to accessibility factors, elderly people may not choose the nearest hospital. In order to investigate such factors, we conducted a questionnaire survey among the elderly from 10 tertiary general hospitals in Hefei, China. On the basis of the origin-destination (OD) cost matrix analysis and statistical analysis of 830 valid questionnaires, this paper analyzed the elders’ selection rules when choosing medical facilities and the factors considered when making a choice. The study found that although 85% of elderly participants valued a short distance to tertiary hospitals, only 31% of them attended the closest hospitals in reality, which correlated with regularity according to their education level, travel activity status, and place of residence. The elderly highlighted road congestion, convenience of public transport stations, and number of transfers as critical in determining whether they sought nearby medical treatment. According to the results, effective ways to encourage the elderly to attend their nearest hospital, from the perspective of accessibility, include easing road congestion, improving the layout of public transport stations, and optimizing urban public transport routes. In particular, when planning future medical facilities, attention should be paid to the elderly with primary school education or below, who cannot travel independently, and those who live far from the city center.

Understanding evolution process of community-embedded elderly care facilities with big data: A spatiotemporal analytical framework

“…Traditional planning policy-making procedures tend to be conducted from a macro-perspective, focusing on construction quantity and overall spatial distribution and based on the user’s facility satisfaction surveys (Longduoqi et al, 2022; Li et al, 2022). Subjective methods, such as questionnaire surveys, are easily influenced by the interviewee’s competency.…”

Emerging trends and patterns in healthcare-seeking behavior: A systematic review

“…Accessibility to healthcare facilities is crucial for the elderly, as highlighted by Li. [39] It is important to consider elderly individuals with lower levels of education, those who cannot travel independently, and those residing far from city centers when planning future healthcare facilities. Liu [40] found a significant decrease in the willingness rate for initial visits to primary healthcare services compared to the policy recommendations proposed by the Chinese State Council.…”

“…[1,2] The study of healthcare-seeking behavior can date back to the 1950s when the rise of medical sociology began. Medical Behavior initial research mainly focuses on the decisionmaking process of medical behavior, mainly in psychology and sociology research, [3,4] with time, medical behavior research content and research methods are also developing, involving clinical medicine, [5,6] economics, [7,8] public health, [9][10][11] and other disciplines, research content mainly involves the influencing factors of medical behavior, [12] different groups [13] or disease types [14,15] public medical characteristics, etc. The deep integration of Internet technology and the medical industry is an important direction for the development of the medical industry, and hospitals are moving towards interconnection, sharing, mobile, collaboration, and wisdom.…”

Quantitative Evaluation of the Equity of Public Service Facility Layout in Urumqi City for Sustainable Development

“…For example, Wu H et al examined the living service facilities in Shanghai from the perspective of supply and demand balance, concluding that living service facilities play an essential role in guaranteeing basic services for residents [23]. Similarly, Li Z et al studied medical public services, highlighting that medical service facilities have become an important aspect of public health services in Chinese cities [6]. Furthermore, the study by Si-Qi Z et al on urban basic education facilities demonstrates that the ability to fulfill the demand for quantity and space directly influences residents' living and urban transport [24].…”

“…However, it is not easy to achieve such an ideal state in reality. First, at the stage of rapid urbanization, public service facilities and amenities cannot keep up with the urban construction pace [6], which makes it challenging to achieve the theoretical states of PSFs in terms of quantity, scale, and quality that match the needs of urban development [7]. Secondly, the differentiation of residential space deriving from the urban socioeconomic structure could result in an imbalance in the PSFs' distribution.…”