Ali Nurul Izzati Mohamad, Marhazlinda Jamaludin
Department of Community Oral Health & Clinical Prevention, Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
Oral Health Program, Ministry of Health, Putrajaya 62590, Malaysia.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 May 12;11(10):1405. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11101405.
Spatial accessibility to health services influences service utilisation and eventually impacts the disease burden. This cross-sectional study analysed the spatial accessibility of schoolchildren to public oral health facilities and school dental services (SDS) and vice versa in Selangor. Overlay and proximity analysis from geo-mapping software was employed to map the primary dental clinics with SDS, the public schools, and the proximity between primary dental clinics with SDS and public schools by travelling distance (5 km, 10 km, 20 km) and travelling time (15 min, 30 min). Over half of the schoolchildren in Selangor are within 5 km of accessibility to primary dental clinics and SDS teams. Meanwhile, nearly half of the primary and secondary schools, particularly in rural areas, are located within a more than 5 km service area of public oral health facilities. The SDS teams have a travel burden of more than 20 km to the public schools in Selangor's northern and north-western districts of large geographical areas. Simultaneously, most public primary and secondary schools are within 15 min of driving time from primary dental clinics. Geo-mapping highlights the inequalities in spatial accessibility to public oral health facilities with SDS among schoolchildren in Selangor. It is time to prioritise the resources, SDS, and preventive programmes to reduce inequalities in oral health accessibility among schoolchildren in Selangor.
获得医疗服务的空间可达性会影响服务利用情况，并最终影响疾病负担。这项横断面研究分析了雪兰莪州学童获得公共口腔卫生设施和学校牙科服务（SDS）的空间可达性，反之亦然。利用地理映射软件进行叠加和邻近性分析，以绘制配备SDS的初级牙科诊所、公立学校的地图，并通过行进距离（5公里、10公里、20公里）和行进时间（15分钟、30分钟）来绘制配备SDS的初级牙科诊所与公立学校之间的邻近性地图。雪兰莪州超过一半的学童距离初级牙科诊所和SDS团队的可达距离在5公里以内。与此同时，近一半的中小学，尤其是农村地区的学校，位于公共口腔卫生设施服务区域超过5公里的范围内。在雪兰莪州地理区域较大的北部和西北部地区，SDS团队前往公立学校的行程负担超过20公里。同时，大多数公立中小学距离初级牙科诊所的驾车时间在15分钟以内。地理映射突出了雪兰莪州学童在获得配备SDS的公共口腔卫生设施方面的空间可达性不平等。现在是时候优先分配资源、SDS和预防项目，以减少雪兰莪州学童在口腔卫生可达性方面的不平等。
