Analyzing Geographical Access to HIV Sentinel Clinics in Relation to Other Health Clinics in Zambia

Abstract

This paper illustrates that in countries such as Zambia where available sentinel clinic data lack patient use information while including location and clinic type, advanced geospatial modeling can be a good proxy for measuring access to health care facilities including HIV sentinel clinics. The analysis shows mapped patterns of potential accessibility to HIV sentinel clinics versus all other clinics, while taking into consideration the spatial distribution of the country's population. The results indicate that Zambia has developed a relatively impressive set of health facilities—so much so that 98% of the population is within 50 km of a health facility, a reasonable distance for a day's bike ride, and nearly three in four are within 20 km. However, when it comes to HIV sentinel or surveillance clinics, this target is far from being realized, with only 52% percent of the population being within 50 km of a sentinel clinic.

KEYWORDS:

• Zambia
• access to HIV sentinel clinics
• GIS spatial analysis
• Thiessen polygons

Notes

1. In location theory, such center models that seek a minimum set and locations of facilities to service demand points within a maximum distance are called the locational set covering problem (LSCP; Murray 2010, p. 340).

2. See the Web site http://www.centratechnology.com about Centra Technology, Inc.

3. This product was made utilizing the LandScan (2008) TM High Resolution global Population Data Set copyrighted by UT-Battelle, LLC, operator of Oak Ridge National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this Data Set. Neither UT-Battelle, LLC, nor the U.S. Department of Energy, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the data set. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/landscan/>.

4. An isoline map is a map that shows lines or areas that join places of equal value, much like a contour map.