Modeling Health Seeking Behavior Based on Location-Based Service Data: A Case Study of Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Understanding residents’ health seeking behavior is crucial for the planning and utilization of healthcare resources. With the support of emerging location-based service (LBS) data, this study proposes a framework for inferring health seeking trips, measuring observed spatial accessibility to healthcare, and interpreting the determinants of health seeking behavior. Taking Shenzhen, China as a case study, a supply–demand ratio calculation method based on observed data is developed to explore basic patterns of health seeking, while health seeking behavior is described using a spatial analysis framework based on the Huff model. A total of 95,379 health seeking trips were identified, and their analysis revealed obvious differences between observed and potential spatial accessibility. In addition to the traditional distance decay effect and number of doctors, the results showed health seeking behavior to be determined by hospital characteristics such as hospital scale, service quality, and popularity. Furthermore, this study also identified differences in health seeking behavior between subgroups with different ages, incomes, and education levels. The findings highlight the need to incorporate actual health seeking behavior when measuring the spatial accessibility of healthcare and planning healthcare resources. The framework and methods proposed in this study can be applied to other contexts and other types of public facilities.