Rural-Urban Differences: Using Finer Geographic Classifications to Reevaluate Distance and Choice of Health Services in Malawi.

ABSTRACT: There is no universal understanding of what defines urban or rural areas nor criteria for differentiating within these. When assessing access to health services, traditional urban-rural dichotomies may mask substantial variation. We use geospatial methods to link household data from the 2015-2016 Malawi Demographic Health Survey to health facility data from the Malawi Service Provision Assessment and apply a new proposed four-category classification of geographic area (urban major metropolitan area, urban township, rural, and remote) to evaluate households' distance to, and choice of, primary, secondary, and tertiary health care in Malawi. Applying this new four-category definition, approximately 3.8 million rural- and urban-defined individuals would be reclassified into new groups, nearly

SUBMITTER: McBride K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9995164 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature