How many roads must a Malaysian walk down? Mapping the accessibility of radiotherapy facilities in Malaysia

Noorazrul Yahya; Nur Khalis Sukiman; Nani Adilah Suhaimi; Nor Aniza Azmi; Hanani A Manan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0213583

How many roads must a Malaysian walk down? Mapping the accessibility of radiotherapy facilities in Malaysia

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 21;14(3):e0213583. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213583. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Noorazrul Yahya¹, Nur Khalis Sukiman¹, Nani Adilah Suhaimi¹, Nor Aniza Azmi¹, Hanani A Manan²

Affiliations

¹ Diagnostic Imaging & Radiotherapy Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Abstract

Background: The accessibility to radiotherapy facilities may affect the willingness to undergo treatment. We sought to quantify the distance and travel time of Malaysian population to the closest radiotherapy centre and to estimate the megavoltage unit (MV)/million population based on the regions.

Materials & methods: Data for subdistricts in Malaysia and radiotherapy services were extracted from Department of Statistics Malaysia and Directory of Radiotherapy Centres (DIRAC). Data from DIRAC were validated by direct communication with centres. Locations of radiotherapy centres, distance and travel time to the nearest radiotherapy were estimated using web mapping service, Google Map.

Results: The average distance and travel time from Malaysian population to the closest radiotherapy centre were 82.5km and 83.4mins, respectively. The average distance and travel were not homogenous; East Malaysia (228.1km, 236.1mins), Central (14.4km, 20.1mins), East Coast (124.2km, 108.8mins), Northern (42.9km, 42.8mins) and Southern (36.0km, 39.8mins). The MV/million population for the country is 2.47, East Malaysia (1.76), Central (4.19), East Coast (0.54), Northern (2.40), Southern (2.36). About 25% of the population needs to travel >100 km to get to the closest radiotherapy facility.

Conclusion: On average, Malaysians need to travel far and long to reach radiotherapy facilities. The accessibility to radiotherapy facilities is not equitable. The disparity may be reduced by adding centres in East Malaysia and the East Coast.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Female
Health Services Accessibility*
Humans
Malaysia
Male
Radiotherapy*
Travel*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National University of Malaysia, GGPM-2017-095 (ukm.edu.my) to NY. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.