Health Services Access Indicator in the Federal District: an ecological study

Abstract

The goal of this study is to develop a synthetic indicator of access to health services in two dimensions: service supply and geographical accessibility to health facilities. To that end, we conducted an ecological study using sociodemographic indicators by Administrative Region of the Federal District, along with data on the resources of Health Facilities for COVID-19 care. The construction of a synthetic indicator, called the Health Services Access Index (IASS), was based on the sum of metrics between the number of specialized care services offered by health facilities linked to the Unified Health System (SUS) and the population’s geographical distance and travel time to access these facilities. The results showed significant disparities between health facilities and the difficulties in accessing them, particularly for residents of 59% of the Administrative Regions, which concentrate Black populations with low income and low education levels. The identified bottlenecks highlight the need for new local public policy design.

Keywords:
Access to health services; Unified Health System; COVID-19; Health inequities