A nationwide analysis of prosthetic accessibility based on geographic information found that prosthetic healthcare deserts are more likely to be found in western rural areas of the United States, with localized patterns influenced by socioeconomic factors.
Researchers computed the spatial distribution of demand for prosthetic services to locations of outpatient prosthetic clinics to estimate the prosthetist to patient ratios in each Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) across the United States. Demand was estimated based on the number of adults with diabetes experiencing amputation.
The likelihood that patients from a given ZCTA would seek services from a particular clinic was determined by comparing the distance between the patient ZCTA centroid and the clinic’s ZIP code. Global and local descriptive analyses were conducted with the ZCTA prosthetist to patient ratios to characterize their relationships to socioeconomic factors.
According to the study, prosthetic access generally followed overall population distributions, with higher prosthetist to patient ratios in urban areas and in ZCTAs with higher demand. Accessibility also matched general patterns in healthcare access, with lower prosthetist to patient ratios in areas overlapping with designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.
Rural western states showed the lowest and scattered accessibility, which the research team attributed as a reflection of the lack of O&P education programs in the region. The researchers also found a concentration of ZCTAs with negative local correlations between access and the Black population, indicating a lack of access in certain southeastern areas.
The study, “Prosthetic healthcare deserts across the United States,” was published in the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics.
