Abstract:

With the rising aging population in China, increasing attention has been paid to the spatial layouts of medical and residential care facilities; however, the accessibility and aging suitability of these facilities have received less attention. Taking Guangdong province as an example, this study used the improved two-step floating catchment area method to measure the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities and summarized their spatial pattern characteristics from four dimensions (1 km, four regions, cities, and counties). A correlation was established between the elderly population density data and their degrees using the autocorrelation analysis method and the Gini coefficient to analyze the aging suitability and equality of medical and residential care facilities. Finally, the Spearman correlation coefficient was used to analyze the factors influencing the accessibility and equality from three aspects, namely: the natural environment, society, and economy. The following results were obtained: 1) Compared with the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method, the improved two-step floating catchment area method was more accurate in reflecting the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities; this showed that the accessibility of downtown areas was relatively lower and that of the suburbs was relatively higher, and the distribution of accessibility values was more reasonable. The results of the improved two-step floating catchment area method revealed an obvious spatial imbalance in the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly and the accessibility of medical facilities for the residential care facilities in Guangdong Province. The accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in the Pearl River Delta region is relatively good, whereas that in the eastern and western coastal economic zones is relatively poor. However, the Pearl River Delta region has the worst accessibility to medical care facilities for residential care facilities among the four regions and efforts are still needed to realize a combination of medical and residential care. 2) The medical and residential care facilities in the Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area and the northern part of Meizhou city were not suitable for the elderly. There was a substantial inequality in the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in Guangdong Province. The accessibility of medical facilities for the residential care facilities in Guangdong province is more equal, but there is still a large inequality; 15 cities in Guangdong province have Gini coefficients greater than 0.5. 3) Road network density, population density, per capita GDP, and local financial expenditure were significantly correlated with the accessibility of medical and residential care facilities. The average altitude, eco-environmental status index, area, road network density, population density, per capita GDP and public financial expenditure were significantly correlated with the equality of medical and residential care facilities for the elderly in Guangdong Province. The results of this study can provide a reference for optimizing the allocation and layout of medical and residential care facilities in Guangdong Province.

Key words: medical facilities, residential care facilities, accessibility, aging suitability, equality, Guangdong Province