Assessment of Geographic Accessibility to Pharmacy in Qom, Iran: A Geographic Information System Analysis

Abstract

Background: Accessibility to pharmacy, including geographic accessibility, is an important goal every government tries to meet. Objectives: In this study, we analyzed the geographic distribution and accessibility of pharmacies in the municipal territory of Qom (a province in Iran) for both pedestrians and drivers. Materials and Methods: The analysis was based on straight-line distance measurements. We considered 150, 300, 450, 600, and 750 m for pedestrians, and 1, 2, and 3 km for driving accessibility as the acceptable distances. We calculated the number and percentage of households located at the acceptable pedestrian and driving distances from each pharmacy. In the second part of study, the day-opened pharmacies were omitted to calculate the pedestrian and driving geographic accessibility of pharmacies during holidays, on weekends and at night. Results: Our analysis indicated that in normal days about 88% of the households located in Qom have acceptable pedestrian accessibility, and almost all of them have acceptable driving accessibility to a pharmacy. In terms of geographic accessibility to the 24/7 pharmacies, the results showed that less than 30% and 95% of households have acceptable pedestrian and driver accessibility, respectively. Conclusions: Geographic accessibility of pharmacies at night and on holidays has to be addressed by provincial health policymakers.