ArticleInternational journal of health geographics2016
Is the closest facility the one actually used? An assessment of travel time estimation based on mammography facilities.
Article in International journal of health geographics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Influence of geographic access and socioeconomic characteristics on breast cancer outcomes: A systematic review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries After Cancer Surgery in Hospitals That Subsequently Closed.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Big data in modelling geographical accessibility to healthcare: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Travel burden and bypassing closest site for surgical cancer treatment for urban and rural oncology patients.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Article
- Determinants of maternal healthcare utilisation among pregnant women in Southern Ethiopia: a multi-level analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- Comparing modelled with self-reported travel time and the used versus the nearest facility: modelling geographic accessibility to family planning outlets in Kenya.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Unmet need for COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Kenya.Vaccine · 2022Article
- A national evaluation of geographic accessibility and provider availability of obesity medicine diplomates in the United States between 2011 and 2019.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2022Article
- Enhancing grant-writing expertise in BUILD institutions: Building infrastructure leading to diversity.PloS one · 2022Article
- Residential Area Sociodemographic and Breast Cancer Screening Venue Location Built Environmental Features Associated with Women's Use of Closest Venue in Greater Sydney, Australia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Incorporating broadband durability in measuring geographic access to health care in the era of telehealth: A case example of the 2-step virtual catchment area (2SVCA) Method.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Article
- Spatial Behavior of Cancer Care Utilization in Distance Decay in the Northeast Region of the U.S.Travel behaviour & society · 2021Article
- Article
- Spatial access inequities and childhood immunisation uptake in Kenya.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Differences in Travel Time to Cancer Surgery for Colon versus Rectal Cancer in a Rural State: A New Method for Analyzing Time-to-Place Data Using Survival Analysis.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2020Article
- Do mobile units contribute to spatial accessibility to mammography for uninsured women?Preventive medicine · 2020Article
- Mapping mammography in Arkansas: Locating areas with poor spatial access to breast cancer screening using optimization models and geographic information systems.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2020Article
- Using floating catchment area (FCA) metrics to predict health care utilization patterns.BMC health services research · 2019Article
- Spatial barriers and the bypassing of nearby dental clinics for dental services: a secondary data analysis in Korea.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Bypassing health facilities in rural Mozambique: spatial, institutional, and individual determinants.BMC health services research · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCharacterizing geographic access depends on a broad range of methods available to researchers and the healthcare context to which the method is applied. Globally, travel time is one frequently used measure of geographic access with known limitations associated with data availability. Specifically, due to lack of available utilization data, many travel time studies assume that patients use the closest facility. To examine this assumption, an example using mammography screening data, which is considered a geographically abundant health care service in the United States, is explored. This work makes an important methodological contribution to measuring access--which is a critical component of health care planning and equity almost everywhere.
methodWe analyzed one mammogram from each of 646,553 women participating in the US based Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium for years 2005-2012. We geocoded each record to street level address data in order to calculate travel time to the closest and to the actually used mammography facility. Travel time between the closest and the actual facility used was explored by woman-level and facility characteristics.
resultsOnly 35% of women in the study population used their closest facility, but nearly three-quarters of women not using their closest facility used a facility within 5 min of the closest facility. Individuals that by-passed the closest facility tended to live in an urban core, within higher income neighborhoods, or in areas where the average travel times to work was longer. Those living in small towns or isolated rural areas had longer closer and actual median drive times.
conclusionSince the majority of US women accessed a facility within a few minutes of their closest facility this suggests that distance to the closest facility may serve as an adequate proxy for utilization studies of geographically abundant services like mammography in areas where the transportation networks are well established.
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