Development of analysis model for underserved areas for national health screenings in Gangwon province using GIS

This study aims not only to present underserved areas with regard to national health screening in Gangwon province using GIS but also to identify factors associated with the participation rate of both national health screening and cancer screening. We used both Statistics Korea and United GIS data. The cost weight distance tool was performed to find underserved areas for both health screening and cancer screening. To analyze factors associated with the participation rate in each health screening, population ratio over 40 years old, income, health level, region(urban/rural) and vulnerability area index(VAI), i.e., underserved area rate in which a total elapsed time to the health screening institution is over 30 minutes, were used for dependent variables. Tobit regression model was performed using STATA 11.0. The VAI for health screening was the highest in the Samcheok-si(15.7%), followed by Inje-gun(18.8%), Youngwol-gun (19.7%), Hwacheon-gun(22.3%), etc. The VAI for cancer screening was the highest in Hongcheon-gun(16.7%), followed by Inje-gun(18.6%), Inje-gun(18.6%), Youngwol-gun(20.9%), Samcheok-si(22.2%), etc. As a result, there was no statistically significant variables to affect the participation rate for health screening. On the other hand, the participation rate for cancer screening was influenced by the VAI(-), region(-), health level(+), income(+) and population ratio over 40 years old(+). To better attain the national health screening rates, GIS technique could be an alternative for policy-makers to find underserved areas for national health screenings.