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Abstract
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More than 40% of people globally face a long trip to a health-care facility unless they find a ride by car, bus or similar form of transport.
A clinic or hospital is a short journey away for the vast majority of people in the world -- as long as they can travel by motor vehicle.
The longer the trip to see a doctor, the less likely people are to seek care. To understand this barrier to treatment, Daniel Weiss at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia, and his colleagues used Google Maps, OpenStreetMap and other geographic-data sources to locate hospitals and clinics across the planet. They then estimated the time a person would spend travelling to the nearest such facility with and without access to motorized transport.
They found that only 57% of the world's population can reach a health-care facility within an hour if on foot -- but more than 90% can do so if riding in a motorized vehicle. Places that still have a high proportion of people who are more than an hour's journey from health care by any means of transport include Afghanistan, Sudan and Venezuela...
Language: en |