Evaluating the relation between spatial healthcare access and mortality during the COVID pandemic: Case Study from GOA State, India

Evaluating the relation between spatial healthcare access and mortality during the COVID pandemic: Case Study from GOA State, India

Banda, Sercinho (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)

Verma, T. (mentor)
Hinrichs-Krapels, S. (graduation committee)
van Beers, Cees (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Engineering and Policy Analysis

2022-09-30

In India the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a nationwide lockdown from March 25, 2020 till the end of May 2020. During this time public and private transportation activities were limited, economic activities came to a standstill and healthcare resources were redistributed. India’s healthcare system faced problems prior to the COVID-19 pandemic such as insufficient availability, suboptimal healthcare services and high out-of-pocket expenditures. The exponential rise in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing problems in the Indian healthcare system while introducing new ones. Realizing optimal care during the health crisis became more challenging as the focus was on mitigating the spread of the virus. The absent of public transportation and the pressure on healthcare resources impacted the healthcare accessibility of different demographic groups. During this study we assessed how access to healthcare was influenced due to the policy interventions that were meant to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The hypothesis is that healthcare access for different demographic groups was negatively impacted by the policies meant to curb the spread. In order to analyse the impact, we performed a case study in the state of Goa using the Network-based Health Accessibility Index Method (NHAIM). This gravitational model allows us to study the spatial distribution of healthcare resources in the state of Goa. Based on our findings we can conclude that healthcare access is unevenly distributed in the state of Goa. Furthermore, we concluded that there is no significant correlation between healthcare availability and the urban and rural mortality rate for the state of Goa. However, there is a significantly strong positive correlation between geographical healthcare access and the urban and rural mortality for the state of Goa.

healthcare accessibility
COVID-19
Spatial distribution

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:87dc87b9-4c92-414e-95e8-5c39682f855f

Student theses

master thesis

© 2022 Sercinho Banda