Background: The geographical accessibility of health services is an important issue especially in developing countries and even more for those sharing a border as for Haiti and the Dominican Republic. During the last 2 decades, numerous studies have explored the potential spatial access to health services within a whole country or metropolitan area. However, the impacts of the border on the access to health resources between two countries have been less explored. The aim of this paper is to measure the impact of the border on the accessibility to health services for Haitian people living close to the Haitian-Dominican border.
Methods: To do this, the widely employed enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method is applied. Four scenarios simulate different levels of openness of the border. Statistical analysis are conducted to assess the differences and variation in the E2SFCA results. A linear regression model is also used to predict the accessibility to health care services according to the mentioned scenarios.
Results: The results show that the health professional-to-population accessibility ratio is higher for the Haitian side when the border is open than when it is closed, suggesting an important border impact on Haitians' access to health care resources. On the other hand, when the border is closed, the potential accessibility for health services is higher for the Dominicans.
Conclusion: The openness of the border has a great impact on the spatial accessibility to health care for the population living next to the border and those living nearby a road network in good conditions. Those findings therefore point to the need for effective and efficient trans-border cooperation between health authorities and health facilities. Future research is necessary to explore the determinants of cross-border health care and offers an insight on the spatial revealed access which could lead to a better understanding of the patients' behavior.
Keywords: Border; Dominican Republic; Enhanced two-step floating catchment area; Haiti; Health care; Spatial accessibility.