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Pharmacy care is a fundamental aspect of primary healthcare and is gaining greater recognition in the healthcare landscape. Recent research has underscored the importance of pharmacy access in primary care, as pharmacies are visited at higher rates than primary care providers and are particularly valuable for reaching rural populations. We aim to measure spatiotemporal variation in access to pharmacy care across the state of Vermont using the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method. Specifically, we seek to identify areas that have particularly limited access to pharmacies. This research is temporally explicit, as it will analyze variation in accessibility at specific times of the day and days of the week. Such temporally granular data has benefits for the research since it provides information on how spatial accessibility varies at irregular times, improving our understanding of when pharmacy care is particularly limited for certain populations. Results will be depicted as a series of spatial accessibility maps, covering diverse temporal extents to capture variations in pharmacy working hours. Previous studies have used the two step floating catchment area (2SFCA) and the E2SFCA method to measure spatial accessibility of pharmacy care across geographic scales and regions. To our knowledge, this is the first temporally-explicit study of pharmacy care, and the first E2SFCA study of pharmacy accessibility in Vermont. The results of this study are of interest to service providers and Vermont state public health officials and may have important implications for public health planning in the state.
This study adapts and extends the methodology used in Kang et al.'s (2020) "Rapidly measuring spatial accessibility of COVID-19 healthcare resources: a case study of Illinois, USA" to measure spatial accessibility of pharmacy care across Vermont.
Key words: Pharmacy, spatial accessibility, pharmacy deserts, Vermont, E2FSCA.Subjects:
Date created: 18-Sept-2023Date modified: 11-Oct-2024Spatial Coverage: The state of Vermont and areas within 10-miles of the Vermont border (MA, NY, NH). Canada is excluded.Spatial Resolution: Vermont municipalities. These units are roughly the same size as census tracts, but they represent politically meaningful geographic units.Spatial Reference System: EPSG 6589Temporal Coverage: Data was collected in October, November, and December of 2023. The temporal extent is not explicitly determined. Pharmacies have been asked to provide their staffing levels over the period of roughly a month. The results from the study will be theoretically based on a single point in time in the fall of 2023. This is a one time measurement, and the study does not investigate change over time.Temporal Resolution: The highest temporal resolution of this study is one hour. Many results and figures aggregate the temporal resolution into days of the week or common operating hours.Funding Name: National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic SciencesFunding Title: Transforming theory-building and STEM education through reproductions and replications in the geographical sciencesAward info URI: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2049837Award number: BCS-2049837OSF Project: Roubin, S., & Holler, J. (2024, January 11). Spatio-Temporal Accessibility of Pharmacy Care in Vermont, USA. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BCQ9SPre-analysis Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BCQ9SPost-analysis Report Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MBC2WPreprint:Conference Presentation: 2024 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting slides and abstractPublication:Prior Studies:
Rights: LICENSE: BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised"Resource type: CollectionResource language: EnglishConforms to: Template for Reproducible and Replicable Research in Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences version 1.0, DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/W29MQThis research compendium is structured with four main directories:
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Kedron, P., & Holler, J. (2023). Template for Reproducible and Replicable Research in Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/W29MQ