Understanding regional disparities in healthcare quality and accessibility in West Bengal, India: A multivariate analysis

Abstract

Healthcare inequality is a major issue in developing countries, as it puts increasing pressure on the local population, particularly rural and disadvantaged groups, to maintain a decent standard of living and have equitable access to healthcare. Using principal component analysis and average aggregation methods, a multilevel, dimension‐based composite healthcare quality index was constructed in the present study. The healthcare quality and accessibility index has four aspects (availability, affordability, accommodation, and amenities) with 21 parameters. The four‐dimensional index and healthcare quality and accessibility index were used to map the spatial pattern of healthcare disparity in the context of service availability, distribution of healthcare facilities, and socioeconomic status across the 18 districts of West Bengal, India. The findings show that in West Bengal, different districts have the widest discrepancies in the various dimensions considered for this research, which require particular attention. According to the healthcare quality and accessibility index, districts in the state's northern and western regions are underdeveloped, which corresponds to a wide variance in total healthcare service quality, accessibility, and socioeconomic position. Puruliya, Maldah, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, and Coochbehar are the districts with the lowest healthcare quality and accessibility, accounting for 28.63% of the total area and housing 17.96 million people who suffer greatly from the poor access to decent healthcare.