REVEALING THE ROLE OF SUBJECTIVE GEOGRAPHIC PROXIMITY IN THE USE OF MEDICAL SERVICES: A QUANTITATIVE CASE STUDY IN A FRENCH METROPOLITAN SUBURB

Abstract

Planning or organizing health services across territories relies mainly on density models and metric management which do not match the complexity of spatial behaviors of individuals. Resources optimization is thus hindered by unexpected change in spatial behaviors. Our paper addresses this gap by analyzing how inhabitants in an urban area experience proximity to reach the hospital when they have the choice between two similar facilities located at similar distance. Quantifying individual patterns in a situation of comparable choice offers the opportunity to measure some relevant variables that play a role in users daily experience of proximity. Our research is based on a real case exploiting mass data in an urban area. We reveal that subjective proximity depends from two main variables: poverty conditions and the boundaries defining people’s activities.