ReviewJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2021
Geographical accessibility of medicines: a systematic literature review of pharmacy mapping.
Review in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Medication access barriers and perceived health consequences in post-war Syria: a cross-sectional study in Homs.Global health action · 2026Article
- Medicines governance and systemic constraints: A qualitative study among healthcare professionals in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Article
- Using standalone pharmacies to reduce tobacco retailer availability: neighbourhood associations and two competing policy options in four US states.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Regional health inequalities of anticancer drug accessibility under the National Drug Price Negotiation in China: a decomposition analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Community Pharmacy Density Across Remote, Rural, Regional and Metropolitan Areas of Australia: An Ecological Study.The Australian journal of rural health · 2026Article
- Local systems, local solutions: which factors drive essential medicine availability in public health facilities across Indonesia?BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Spatial analysis of accessibility to healthcare-related facilities in Tokyo Metropolis using geographic information systems.PloS one · 2026Article
- Geographical access to community pharmacies in British Columbia, Canada.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- Article
- Urban-rural disparities in spatiotemporal accessibility of pharmacy care: a case study of Vermont, USA.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The PrEP Pharmacy Reach Study: Protocol for the Creation of Maps to Visualize the Impact of Expanding Access to HIV Prevention Services Through Pharmacies.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic determinants of affordability of medication: a panel data econometric analysis in Iran.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- ARIA-Italy managing allergic rhinitis and asthma in a changing world: The role of the Pharmacist.The World Allergy Organization journal · 2025Review
- Knowledge of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis Characteristics, Signs, Symptoms, and Appropriate Treatment Among Portuguese Pharmacy Professionals.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Trends in Medicine Supply, Price and Utilisation in Primary Care Facilities in Rural Southwestern China Under National Essential Medicines Policy (2012-2017): Disparities Across Facilities and Medicines.International journal of health policy and management · 2025Article
- Article
- Community pharmacy density at national and subnational levels in New Zealand.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2025Article
- Geographical and temporal variations in availability of national price negotiated novel anticancer drugs: a spatial statistical study based on two cross-sectional datasets in China.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Disadvantaged groups have greater spatial access to pharmacies in New York state.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Viral hepatitis testing and treatment in community pharmacies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMeasuring access to medicines has often been limited to assessing availability and affordability, while little is known regarding other dimensions of access including geographical accessibility. Our study aims to provide a systematic review of literature on the accessibility of medicines by studying the geographical distribution of pharmacies using Spatial Analytical methods.
methodsAs systematic review of scientific peer-reviewed literature between 2000 and 2018 was carried out using PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Google and the Preferred Reporting items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Data regarding pharmacy density, distance to pharmacies in relation of pharmacy to sociodemographic factors and pharmacy characteristics were extracted from studies that meet the inclusion criteria.
findingsTwenty papers fulfilled our inclusion criteria, of which only three were from middle income countries and rest from high-income economies. Pharmacy density per population was reported in 15 studies. Although geographical information was utilized in all studies, only 14 studies reported distance to pharmacies represented as Euclidean (straight line) distance. Disparities in accessibility was reported according to population income and rural or urban location. Seven studies described additional pharmacy characteristics including opening hours, presence of a pharmacist and delivery services.
conclusionsGeographical accessibility is a key dimension of access to medicines. Pharmacy density per population is a relevant indicator to assess geographical accessibility which should be complemented by an equity analysis using socio-demographic information and population perception of accessibility.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.