The access of the population to the health services is a requirement of basic importance for the efficiency of health assistance. The geographical localization of the services is one of the factors that interfere with this accessibility. It is intended to make a contribution to the study of the localization of health services. The basic proposal introduces a method which takes into account the relationships between geographical, demographical and social variables. Emphasis is placed on community participation in the process. The study of the adequacy of this method was undertaken under the regional characteristics of Santo Amaro, a suburb of the city of S. Paulo, Brazil. The contribution furnished by the geographical approach in this work opens up a broad perspective for the setting up of new lines of research, planning and administration resulting from the interation between human geography and public health within the common field for which it is suggested Geography of Public Health.
Health services accessibility; Geography; Residence characteristics; Consumer participation