ArticlePreventive medicine reports2026
Spatial accessibility to healthcare facilities and the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 infection: evidence from the reasons for geographic and racial differences in stroke (REGARDS) study, United States, March 2020 to September 2021.
Article in Preventive medicine reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Objective: During the pandemic, disparities in COVID-19 infection emerged across geographic and demographic groups, potentially linked to healthcare access disparities. This study examined associations between spatial accessibility to healthcare facilities and COVID-19 incidence in the United States, among older adults in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort from March 2020-September 2021. Methods: Using 2020-2021 healthcare facility data for 10,089 REGARDS participants, we defined accessibility based on the presence or absence of healthcare facilities within 5 km buffers centered on participant's census tract of residence. We estimated odds ratios using Generalized Estimating Equations, adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, social vulnerability index, and urbanicity. Results: The absence of certain healthcare facilities was significantly associated with higher COVID-19 infection odds: pharmacies/drugstores (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.53), retail clinics (OR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.38), and residential care (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.62). Sensitivity analyses using different sized buffers yielded similar results; notably, absence of health practitioner offices was significant at 1 km. Conclusions: Findings suggest that for older adults, access to healthcare facilities, especially pharmacies/drugstores, retail clinics, and residential care was inversely associated with COVID-19 infection odds. Addressing disparities in healthcare accessibility may help reduce infection risk.
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