Mobility and accessibility to health

literature review on archipelagic territories and islands

Abstract

Studies about the role of geographic conditions as a barrier to healthcare access have been focused in the context of megacities. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop a literature review about intersections between the mobility paradigm and geographical accessibility to health in rural territories and islands. Methodology: During 2019 a literature review was carried out searching international evidence using ISI Web of Science. 54 peer-reviewed publications were selected because they were focused on geographic accessibility to health in rural or island territories, considering key issues to mobility approach: distance, organization of health system, experiences of travel, transport system, geographical conditions, etc. Results: From the results, four categories were identified: a) Disparities in access to specific health services, b) discussions about geographic methods to measure health accessibility, c) case studies about mobility of health workers d) transport systems, daily mobility of patients and the experiences of journeys to health facilities. Conclusions: The major part of the studies use a traditional approach that considers distance and distribution as critical factor of geographical accessibility. Notwithstanding there is agree on the neccesity of including multiple dimensions of mobility in measuring geographical accessibility, as subjective experiences of travel and specific conditions of some territories. Mobility for health reason is specially not well studied in islands.