Sex Transm Dis. 2022 Apr 23. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001637. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Understanding spatial access to sexual health services will provide the foundation for future resource planning and allocation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential geographic access to sexual health services in Toronto, Canada, by developing a novel accessibility index to sexual health clinics.
METHODS: We created an accessibility index using the two-step floating catchment area method to quantify neighbourhood level access to sexual health clinics. The index assumed mixed modes of urban travel through walking and public transit, as well as through driving, and was estimated at the census tract level.
RESULTS: Census tracts were grouped into quantiles by the estimated accessibility score. Census tracts with higher accessibility scores were characterized as those with greater residential instability and lower dependency and ethnic concentration. The downtown core area has all census tracts categorized as Medium, High, or Very High (average score = 1.320, sd = 0.312), whereas the non-core area has 56.98%, 302 out of 530 census tracts categorized as Medium, High, or Very High (average score = -0.105, sd = 0.960).
CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the benefit of using statistical methods to quantify the geographical access to sexual health services and identified neighbourhoods with high and low levels of access. Findings from this study present an overview of the level of spatial access to sexual health clinics in Toronto based on clinic locations in 2018 and can be further used to characterize neighbourhoods with lower level of access and inform policy and planning decisions in the city.
PMID:35470349 | DOI:10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001637
