Integrative literature review: a review of literature related to geographical information systems, healthcare access, and health outcomes.

Differences in access to healthcare services and the resulting adverse health outcomes are major public health priorities. The Institute of Medicine and the Department of Health and Human Services have identified the need for strategies to improve access to healthcare services and to support the improvement of health outcomes. The literature documents health disparities associated with healthcare access and health outcomes from a geographic perspective. Place of residence, location of healthcare services, and geography in general are important factors in the analysis of health. Geographical information systems (GISs) are an emerging technology in the analysis of health from a geographical or location context. As a type of information technology, GISs are potentially powerful assessment tools for the investigation of healthcare access, health outcomes, and the possible resulting health disparities. Their ability to integrate health data with mapping functions allows for visualization, exploration, and modeling of health patterns. Application of GIS technology using health data can help in describing and explaining disparities in healthcare access and health outcomes. The studies reviewed demonstrated the use of GISs to investigate various aspects of healthcare access and health outcomes, including environmental variables of Lyme disease, sociodemographic variables and teen pregnancy, geographical disparities in breast cancer mortality by racial groups, PCP and AIDS prevalence, and factors of a leptospirosis disease outbreak. The literature reviewed shows effective integration and analysis of health data using GIS technology.

[1]  E B Parker,et al.  Measuring access to primary medical care: some examples of the use of geographical information systems. , 1998, Health & place.

[2]  Ellen K Cromley,et al.  GIS and disease. , 2003, Annual review of public health.

[3]  P. Sorlie,et al.  Evaluation of social status as a contributing factor to the stroke belt region of the United States. , 1997, Stroke.

[4]  James Studnicki,et al.  A method to measure the impact of primary care programs targeted to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes. , 2003, Journal of public health management and practice : JPHMP.

[5]  B. Smedley,et al.  Unequal Treatment: Con-fronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care , 2002 .

[6]  Christovam Barcellos,et al.  Socio-environmental determinants of the leptospirosis outbreak of 1996 in western Rio de Janeiro: A geographical approach , 2000, International journal of environmental health research.

[7]  Katherine A. Lawrence,et al.  Analysis of Canadian population with potential geographic access to intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. , 1998, Stroke.

[8]  Anthony C. Gatrell,et al.  Geographies of Health , 2001 .

[9]  Holly Jacobson,et al.  Evaluating the disparity of female breast cancer mortality among racial groups - a spatiotemporal analysis , 2004, International journal of health geographics.

[10]  E. Drucker,et al.  Analysis of a population-based Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia index as an outcome measure of access and quality of care for the treatment of HIV disease. , 2002, American journal of public health.

[11]  S. McLafferty,et al.  GIS and Public Health , 2002 .

[12]  Richard D. Mrozinski,et al.  Residential setting as a risk factor for Lyme disease in a hyperendemic region. , 1998, American journal of epidemiology.

[13]  Adrienne Y. Stith,et al.  Unequal treatment: confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. , 2003 .

[14]  B. Blake,et al.  Geographical mapping of unmarried teen births and selected sociodemographic variables. , 2001, Public health nursing.