Determinants of health care facilities and patients’ accessibility to PHC in Madurai district

Abstract

Health geography as an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with variations of disease incidence as expressed in mortality or morbidity with the demonstration of possible cause and effect relationship with health utilization, elements of physical, biological and socio-cultural environments in space. The study area Madurai district lies between 9° 30′ north to 10° 30′ North latitudes and 77° 30′ east to 78° 30′ East longitudes. The data for the present study was collected from primary and secondary source. The main objectives of the study are; To analyze the identification of spatial distribution of health care centers in Madurai district. To analyze the significance of health care location and its efficiency. To analysis the patient’s perception and satisfaction level who avail these health care services. The two important techniques used in the present study are statistical technique and GIS. The maps are prepared using GIS Software. The relationships and the interdependence nature of different variables are analyzed using the correlation matrix capable of explaining the relationships of one variable with all other variables. Apart from this, the multivariate statistical technique factor analysis is used to find the major associations and interrelationships between PHC diseases among patients, derived by using SPSS 7.5. To identify health service area in Madurai District, spatial analysis techniques were applied. The Study describes about patients’ perception and utilization of travel behaviour pattern among sex and age variation and healthcare planning of PHC’s in Madurai District.