Sara McLafferty | PubMed Health

PubMed2005

Immigration and geographic access to prenatal clinics in Brooklyn, NY: a geographic information systems analysis.

We compared levels of geographic access to prenatal clinics in Brooklyn, NY, between immigrant and US-born mothers and among immigrant groups by country of birth. We used birth data to characterize the spatial distribution of mothers and kernel estimation to measure clinic density within a 2-mile radius of each mother. Results showed that geographic access to clinics differs substantially by country of birth. Certain groups (e.g., Pakistani, Bangladeshi) have relatively poor geographic access despite a high need for prenatal care.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Prenatal care need and access: a GIS analysis.

Many municipalities provide special prenatal care services targeted to low-income women whose access to prenatal care is constrained. For such services to be successful and effective, they must be geographically targeted to the places where low-income, high-need mothers live. This paper presents a GIS analysis of prenatal care need and clinic services for low-income mothers in Brooklyn, NY. We analyze fine-grained geographic variation in need using data on the residential locations of recent mothers who lack health insurance or are covered by Medicaid. Spatial statistical methods are used to create spatially smoothed maps of the density of mothers and corresponding maps of the density of prenatal clinics. For these mothers, clinic density is positively associated with early initiation of prenatal care. Although clinic locations conform relatively well to the residential concentrations of high-need women, we identify several underserved areas with large numbers of needy women and few clinics available.

Adolescent↗