‘Pharmacy Deserts’ Are Prevalent In Chicago’s Predominantly Minority Communities, Raising Medication Access Concerns

Abstract

Attempts to explain and address disparities in the use of prescription medications have focused almost exclusively on their affordability. However, the segregation of residential neighborhoods by race or ethnicity also may influence access to the pharmacies that, in turn, provide access to prescription medications within a community. We examined whether trends in the availability of pharmacies varied across communities in Chicago with different racial or ethnic compositions. We also examined the geographic accessibility of pharmacies to determine whether "pharmacy deserts," or low-access neighborhoods, were more common in segregated black and Hispanic communities than elsewhere. We found that throughout the period 2000-2012 the number of pharmacies was lower in segregated minority communities than in segregated white communities and integrated communities. In 2012 there were disproportionately more pharmacy deserts in segregated black communities, as well as in low-income communities and federally designated Medically Underserved Areas. Our findings suggest that public policies aimed at improving access to prescription medications may need to address factors beyond insurance coverage and medication affordability. Such policies could include financial incentives to locate pharmacies in pharmacy deserts or the incorporation of pharmacies into community health centers in Medically Underserved Areas.

Pharmacy-level barriers to implementing expedited partner therapy in Baltimore, Maryland

“…This conclusion is consistent with Qato et al, which found that pharmacy deserts are more prevalent in predominantly minority neighborhoods. 21 This association is concerning because Black and Hispanic or Latino populations are disproportionately affected by Ct, which is the most common notifiable STI targeted by EPT. 22 Inadequate pharmacy access may impede treatment of infections, potentially maintaining high STI prevalence and increasing the likelihood of further transmission in these communities.…”

Assessing spatial inequalities in accessing community pharmacies: a mixed geographically weighted approach

“…A set of independent variables was chosen on the basis of regional socio-economic features, previous research (Casey et al, 2002;Perez and Decoupigny, 2009;Amstislavski et al, 2012;Norris et al, 2014;Qato et al, 2014) and data availability at the municipal level. This dataset included population (1000s of inhabitants)/population density (inhabitants per km 2 ), mean altitude (100 m units) above the mean sea level (msl), dummy variables of the status of rural according to the Eurostat classification (Istat, 2014), municipality (0=urban), coastal municipality (0=landlocked), proportion of >65-year-olds, <5-yearolds, immigrants, and a proxy of municipal income (mean declared personal income per taxpaper in 1000s of Euro).…”

“…Limited geographical access not only reduces the availability of pharmaceuticals but also limits recommendations regarding their use (Norris et al, 2014). Qato et al (2014) and Amstislavski et al (2012) have even coined the terms pharmacy deserts and medication deserts, respectively, to describe neighbourhoods where geographic access to pharmacies and the availability of commonly used drugs are poor.…”

“…Research has shown that geographical access to pharmacies depends on several factors, such as socio-economic determinants (Casey et al, 2002;Amstislavski et al, 2012;Qato et al, 2014) including levels of deprivation (Ward et al, 2014;Todd et al, 2014), community segregation (Qato et al, 2014), landscape features (Perez and Decoupigny, 2009) and degree of urbanity vis-à-vis remoteness (Lin, 2004;Todd et al, 2014;Norris et al, 2014). Among these, urban-rural inequalities are of particular relevance in Italy, since rural areas account for more than 90% of the surface area and host about 57% of the population.…”

Exploring Accessibility of Community Pharmacy Services

“…For example, a recent study in Chicago found that there were fewer pharmacies in minority communities compared with white or integrated communities and that the disparity is worsening. 12 The researchers concluded that public policy changes should be considered, such as increased prescription reimbursement rates for community pharmacies located within pharmacy deserts and including pharmacies in community health centers. Disparities can also exist within communities that appear that have an adequate distribution of communities pharmacies.…”