Measure of geographic accessibility to health care services in Dakar urban area

Urban environment is generally more equipped in healthcare services than rural areas. However, the spatial distribution of these latter is often uneven there. We propose to measure these sociospatial disparities of geographical accessibility to health services in Dakar's agglomeration, using two stages floating catchment areas improved method and the local indicators of spatial association. The data used come from the general census of the population and housing in 2002 and of georeferencement of health structures in 2007. The results show strong spatial disparities in accessibility, a local spatial association between the accessibility and the level of life, indicating a contrast between the east, where there is a double handicap related to the low level of accessibility and low standard of living, and the west, where the reverse phenomenon is observed. Beyond this opposition, there are also pockets of local heterogeneity reminiscent of the complexity of Dakar's area.