1. Geographic accessibility to physiotherapy care in Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Author
-
Buhler M, Shah T, Perry M, Tennant M, Kruger E, and Milosavljevic S
- Subjects
- New Zealand, Humans, Male, Female, Spatial Analysis, Healthcare Disparities statistics & numerical data, Health Services Accessibility statistics & numerical data, Physical Therapy Modalities statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
Disparities in care access for health conditions where physiotherapy can play a major role are abetting health inequities. Spatial analyses can contribute to illuminating inequities in health yet the geographic accessibility to physiotherapy care across New Zealand has not been examined. This population-based study evaluated the accessibility of the New Zealand physiotherapy workforce relative to the population at a local scale. The locations of 5,582 physiotherapists were geocoded and integrated with 2018 Census data to generate 'accessibility scores' for each Statistical Area 2 using the newer 3-step floating catchment area method. For examining the spatial distribution and mapping, accessibility scores were categorized into seven levels, centered around 0.5 SD above and below the mean. New Zealand has an above-average physiotherapy-to-population ratio compared with other OECD countries; however, this workforce is maldistributed. This study identified areas (and locations) where geographic accessibility to physiotherapy care is relatively low., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF