Mapping physical access to healthcare for older adults in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional analysis with implications for the COVID-19 response
Authors: Geldsetzer Pascal , Reinmuth Marcel , Ouma Paul O. , Lautenbach Sven , Okiro Emelda A. , Bärnighausen Till , Zipf Alexander 
Published: July 2020

Background

SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is rapidly spreading across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Hospital-based care for COVID-19 is particularly often needed among older adults. However, a key barrier to accessing hospital care in SSA is travel time to the healthcare facility. To inform the geographic targeting of additional healthcare resources, this study aimed to determine the estimated travel time at a 1km x 1km resolution to the nearest hospital and to the nearest healthcare facility of any type for adults aged 60 years and older in SSA.

Methods

We assembled a unique dataset on healthcare facilities’ geolocation, separately for hospitals and any type of healthcare facility (including primary care facilities) and including both private- and public-sector facilities, using data from the OpenStreetMap project and the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Programme. Population data at a 1km x 1km resolution was obtained from WorldPop. We estimated travel time to the nearest healthcare facility for each 1km x 1km grid using a cost-distance algorithm.

Findings

9.6% (95% CI: 5.2% – 16.9%) of adults aged ≥60 years had an estimated travel time to the nearest hospital of longer than six hours, varying from 0.0% (95% CI: 0.0% – 3.7%) in Burundi and The Gambia, to 40.9% (95% CI: 31.8% – 50.7%) in Sudan. 11.2% (95% CI: 6.4% – 18.9%) of adults aged ≥60 years had an estimated travel time to the nearest healthcare facility of any type (whether primary or secondary/tertiary care) of longer than three hours, with a range of 0.1% (95% CI: 0.0% – 3.8%) in Burundi to 55.5% (95% CI: 52.8% – 64.9%) in Sudan. Most countries in SSA contained populated areas in which adults aged 60 years and older had a travel time to the nearest hospital of more than 12 hours and to the nearest healthcare facility of any type of more than six hours. The median travel time to the nearest hospital for the fifth of adults aged ≥60 years with the longest travel times was 348 minutes (equal to 5.8 hours; IQR: 240 – 576 minutes) for the entire SSA population, ranging from 41 minutes (IQR: 34 – 54 minutes) in Burundi to 1,655 minutes (equal to 27.6 hours; IQR: 1065 – 2440 minutes) in Gabon.

Interpretation

Our high-resolution maps of estimated travel times to both hospitals and healthcare facilities of any type can be used by policymakers and non-governmental organizations to help target additional healthcare resources, such as new make-shift hospitals or transport programs to existing healthcare facilities, to older adults with the least physical access to care. In addition, this analysis shows precisely where population groups are located that are particularly likely to under-report COVID-19 symptoms because of low physical access to healthcare facilities. Beyond the COVID-19 response, this study can inform countries’ efforts to improve care for conditions that are common among older adults, such as chronic non-communicable diseases.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We searched MEDLINE from January 1966 until May 2020 for studies with variations of the words ‘physical access’, ‘distance’, ‘travel time’, ‘hospital’, and ‘healthcare facility’ in the title or abstract. To date, the only studies to systematically map physical access to healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa at a high resolution examined access to emergency hospital care (with a focus on women of child-bearing age), access to care for children with fever, travel time to the nearest healthcare facility for specific populations at risk of viral haemorrhagic fevers, and travel time to the nearest regional- or district-level hospital.

Added value of this study

The added value of this study is threefold. First, we assembled a new dataset of GPS-tagged healthcare facilities, which combines two unique data sources for the geolocation of healthcare facilities across sub-Saharan Africa: one-based on crowd-sourced data from OpenStreetMap and one based on information from ministries of health, health management information systems, government statistical agencies, and international organizations. Second, this is the first study to comprehensively map both hospitals and primary healthcare facilities, and including both public- and private-sector facilities, across sub-Saharan Africa. Third, because the COVID-19 epidemic causes a far higher need for hospital services among older than younger population groups, we focus on physical access to healthcare for the population aged 60 years and older, which is a population group that is rarely studied in investigations of healthcare demand and supply in the region. As such, our maps can inform not only the health system response to COVID-19, but more generally to conditions that are common among older adults in the region, particularly chronic non-communicable diseases and their sequelae.

Implications of all the available evidence

Low physical access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa will be a major barrier to receiving care for adults aged 60 years and older with COVID-19. However, there is a wide degree of variation in physical access to healthcare facilities for older adults in the region both between and within countries, which likely has an important bearing on the extent to which different population groups within countries are able to access care for COVID-19. Likewise, in those areas with a long travel time to the nearest healthcare facility of any type (which exist in most countries), symptomatic cases of COVID-19 are particularly unlikely to be reported to the healthcare system. Our high-resolution maps for each region and country in sub-Saharan Africa provide precise information about this geographic variation for local, national, and regional policymakers as well as non-governmental organizations.