Role of independent versus chain pharmacies in providing pharmacy access: a nationwide, individual-level geographic information systems analysis.

ABSTRACT: Pharmacy accessibility is critical for equity in medication access and is jeopardized by pharmacy closures, which disproportionately affect independent pharmacies. We conducted a geographic information systems analysis to quantify how many individuals across the US do not have optimal pharmacy access or solely rely on independent pharmacies for access. We generated service areas of pharmacies using OpenStreetMap data. For each individual in a 30% random sample of the 2020 RTI US Household Synthetic Population^™ (n=90,778,132), we defined optimal pharmacy access as having a driving distance to the closest pharmacy ≤2 miles in urban counties, ≤5 miles in suburban counties, and ≤10 miles in rural counties. Individuals were then categorized according to their access to chain and inde

SUBMITTER: Hernandez I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10519705 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature