Quantifying the Impact of Accessibility on Preventive Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Mobile Phone Data
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Poor physical access to health facilities has been identified as an important contributor to reduced uptake of preventive health services and is likely to be most critical in low-income settings. However, the relation among physical access, travel behavior, and the uptake of healthcare is difficult to quantify. METHODS: Using anonymized mobile phone data from 2008 to 2009, we analyze individual and spatially aggregated travel patterns of 14,816,521 subscribers across Kenya and compare these measures to (1) estimated travel times to health facilities and (2) data on the uptake of 2 preventive healthcare interventions in an area of western Kenya: childhood immunizations and antenatal care. RESULTS: We document that long travel times to health facilities are strongly correlated with increased mobility in geographically isolated areas. Furthermore, we found that in areas with equal physical access to healthcare, mobile phone-derived measures of mobility predict which regions are lacking preventive care. CONCLUSIONS: Routinely collected mobile phone data provide a simple and low-cost approach to mapping the uptake of preventive healthcare in low-income settings.
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Long travel times to health facilities strongly correlate with increased mobility in geographically isolated areas.
“They found that long travel times to health facilities strongly correlate with increased mobility in geographically isolated areas.”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [121]
Mobile phone-derived measures of mobility can predict which regions are lacking preventive care.
“Furthermore, they have shown that the mobile phone-derived measures of mobility can predict which regions are lacking preventive care.”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [121]
A study used cell tower location data from 14 million subscribers tracked for a year in rural Kenya to find the correlation between the mobility of the people, access to healthcare and uptake of two preventive healthcare interventions: childhood immunizations and antenatal care.
“A study [121] used cell tower location data from 14 million subscribers tracked for a year in rural Kenya to find the correlation between the mobility of the people, access to healthcare and uptake of two preventive healthcare interventions: childhood immunizations and antenatal care.”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [121]
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Connectivity for Human Capital
Bank, W. (2021) · World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks · doi:10.1596/35185
- Authors
- Wesolowski, A., O’Meara, W. P., Tatem, A. J., Ndege, S., Eagle, N., & Buckee, C. O.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Moi University (KE)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Buckee, Caroline O.
- Venue
- Epidemiology
- Published
- 2015-03
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 223-228
- ISSN
- 1044-3983 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4323566
- OpenAlex
- W2122746356
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 5.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Epidemiology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0750271)
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP#1032350)
- James S. McDonnell Foundation
- Abbott Laboratories
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U54GM088558)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U19AI089674)
- Fogarty International Center
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
- Keywords
- health care access, travel time to health facilities, mobile phone data, travel behavior, childhood immunization, prenatal care, low-income settings, Kenya
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child, Preschool, Developing Countries, Female, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, Infant, Kenya, Longitudinal Studies, Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, Time Factors, Travel, Vaccination, Health Care Surveys, Cell Phone
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