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Assessing Equity in the Provision of Primary Healthcare Centers in Buenos Aires Province (Argentina): A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

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Abstract

Background

Unequal access to healthcare between individuals or populations does not imply the existence of inequities as it must be controlled for differences in need. This is usually done either via direct or indirect standardization methods.

Objective

We study the degree of equity in the availability of public primary healthcare centers between the 134 municipalities of the Buenos Aires province (Argentina) with a novel application of an existing statistical tool.

Methods

Stochastic frontier analysis was applied to estimate the number of primary care facilities that should be available in each municipality according to demographic variables (population under age 4 years and above age 65 years), as they are the population groups with higher healthcare needs.

Results

Under all specifications tried, the endowment of primary healthcare centers at the municipal level tends to increase (but less than proportionally) with the size of the population at risk. In addition, wealthier jurisdictions tend to be more equitable but also more heterogeneous.

Conclusions

Stochastic frontier analysis allows us to discriminate between those districts that, according to their needs, are underserved, from those who have a surplus of health facilities. This approach can also help to explore what other elements might be responsible for the observed inequities.

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Notes

  1. The concentration curve plots the cumulative percentage of the health resource variable (y-axis) against the cumulative percentage of the sample, ranked by living standards.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Federico Barragan from the Laboratory of Geotechnology (Universidad Nacional del Sur) for technical assistance with maps.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Conicet, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Florencia Arnaudo

  2. Department of Economics, Universidad Nacional del Sur, IIESS, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Fernando Lago & Valentina Viego

Authors
  1. Florencia Arnaudo
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  2. Fernando Lago
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  3. Valentina Viego
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valentina Viego.

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Funding

This work was supported by Universidad Nacional del Sur Science and Technology Secretary [24E/100].

Conflict of interest

Valentina Viego, María Florencia Arnaudo, and Fernando Lago declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Arnaudo, F., Lago, F. & Viego, V. Assessing Equity in the Provision of Primary Healthcare Centers in Buenos Aires Province (Argentina): A Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Appl Health Econ Health Policy 15, 425–433 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-016-0303-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-016-0303-9

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