RESEARCH ARTICLE Methodology for building a geographical accessibility health index throughout metropolitan France 1,2 3,4 3,4 3,4 Ludivine LaunayID *, Fabien Guillot , David Gaillard , Mohand Medjkane , Thierry Saint-GeÂrand3,4, Guy Launoy1,3,5, Olivier Dejardin1,5 1 U1086 INSERM "Anticipe", Caen, France, 2 Centre FrancËois Baclesse, Caen, France, 3 University of Caen Normandie, Caen, France, 4 UMR 6266 CNRS IDEES, Caen, Rouen, Le Havre, France, 5 Research a1111111111 department, University Hospital of Caen, Caen cedex, France a1111111111 a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract Spatial accessibility to health services is a key factor in terms of public health. Even though some tools are available, establishing accessibility criteria applicable from one geographic OPEN ACCESS scale to another remains difficult. Therefore, we propose a method for creating a health Citation: Launay L, Guillot F, Gaillard D, Medjkane accessibility index applicable on a large geographic scale, based on a methodology that  M, Saint-Gerand T, Launoy G, et al. (2019) overcomes the limitations of political-administrative divisions and which allows a multi-scalar Methodology for building a geographical accessibility health index throughout metropolitan approach to be implemented. The index highlights, on a national scale, areas of cumulative France. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0221417. https://doi. health disadvantages. This index of accessibility to health care combines accessibility and org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221417 availability and can be adapted to many geographical scales. As accessibility can be under- Editor: Karyn Morrissey, University of Essex, stood in various dimensions, a score could be calculated for various fields such as education UNITED KINGDOM and culture.