A Study of the Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Children Access to Pharmacies: A Case Study of Kermanshah, West of Iran

Reshadat, Sohyla; Zangeneh, Alireza; Saeidi, Shahram; Ziapour, Arash; Saeidi, Fariba; Choobtashani, Maryam

doi:10.22038/ijp.2018.29304.2568

A Study of the Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Children Access to Pharmacies: A Case Study of Kermanshah, West of Iran

Authors

Sohyla Reshadat ¹

Alireza Zangeneh ¹

Shahram Saeidi ¹

Arash Ziapour ²

Fariba Saeidi ²

Maryam Choobtashani ²

¹ Social Development and Health Promotion Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.

² Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.

10.22038/ijp.2018.29304.2568

Abstract

Background
Adequate access to health services has tremendous effects on the usefulness and efficiency of health care. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the access of girls under the age of 14 years old to pharmacies in Kermanshah, Iran.
Materials and Methods
In this cross-sectional study, the access of
Results
In terms of access to 25 pharmacies through walking, the findings revealed that lacked access as much as 48.83%. In terms of access to daytime pharmacies through walking, 88.05% had improper access. Furthermore, in terms of access to 25 pharmacies through driving, the results were as follows: with five minutes of driving (24.75% no access), with 10 minutes of driving (9.07% no access), and with 15 minutes of driving (1.97% no access). As for access to daytime pharmacies through driving, the results were as follows: with five minutes of driving (5.42% no access), with 10 minutes of driving (2.15% no access).
Conclusion
The results of the present study demonstrated that the access for girls under the age of 14 years to pharmacies through walking was in poor condition. However, it was found out that access through driving was much better than access through walking.

Keywords

Children

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Network Analysis

Pharmacy