Citation

Leung M, Chow CB, Ip PP, Yip SP. Spat. Spatiotemporal Epidemiol. 2020; 33: e100334.

Affiliation

Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Faculty of Social Sciences, Director of HK Jockey Club Center of Suicide Research and Prevention, Hong Kong. Electronic address: sfpyip@hku.hk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.sste.2020.100334

PMID

32370942

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the association between area-based coverage of community services and the incidence of self-harm, which will provide an evaluation framework for the support of self-harm.

METHODS: Enhanced two-Step floating catchment area method was used to estimate the centersto- population ratio and geographical accessibility adjusted by a distance-decay function. Spearman's rank coefficient was used to examine the association between the self-harm rate and adjusted accessibility index.

RESULTS: There was a significant negative correlation between the accessibility index and selfharm rate in youth (rho = -0.87, P < 0.01) and older adults (rho = -0.87, P < 0.01). The survival curves showed no relationship between self-harm repetition and service accessibility in youth or older adults.

CONCLUSIONS: The uneven spatial accessibility of community social service centers and the independence between spatial accessibility and self-harm highlights the need to explore personal barriers to community service utilization.

Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Accessibility; Hong Kong; Provider-to-population ratio; Self-harm