Differences in walking access to healthcare facilities between formal and informal areas in 19 sub-Saharan African cities

Background: Spatial accessibility to healthcare is a critical factor in ensuring equitable health outcomes. While studies on a global, continental, and national level exist, our understanding of intra-urban differences, particularly between formal and informal areas within cities in sub-Saharan Africa, remains limited.

Methods: This study integrates openly available datasets on land use in 19 sub-Saharan cities, healthcare facilities in the region, and street networks from OpenStreetMap. Using these datasets, we calculate service areas around hospitals, considering travel times ranging from 1 to 120 minutes with walking as the mode of travel. The resulting service areas are then merged with population data from WorldPop, allowing us to assess the proportion of the population with specific travel times to healthcare facilities from informal and formal residential areas.

Results: Our analysis reveals that 33% of the urban population can reach hospitals within 15 minutes, 58% within 30 minutes, and 78% within 60 minutes. Importantly, for some cities, we observe significant differences between formal and informal areas, with informal areas experiencing a disadvantage in terms of spatial accessibility to healthcare facilities. The population in informal areas is particularly disadvantaged in medium-sized cities.

Conclusions: This study sheds light on the spatial accessibility of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan African cities, emphasizing the need to consider intra-urban disparities, particularly in informal areas. The findings underscore the importance of targeted interventions and urban planning strategies to address these disparities and ensure that healthcare services are accessible to all segments of the urban population.

This study examines how easily people in 19 sub-Saharan African cities can reach healthcare facilities, focusing on differences between formal and informal neighborhoods. Formal neighborhoods have planned layouts and structured buildings, often linked to higher socio-economic status. Informal neighborhoods have irregular layouts and densely packed buildings, typically associated with lower socio-economic status. Access to healthcare can significantly impact health, yet little is known about how it varies within cities. By mapping walking times to hospitals, we found that 78% of the urban population can reach a hospital within an hour, but residents in informal areas, especially in medium-sized cities, often face longer travel times. This highlights the need for equitable urban planning to improve healthcare access.