Spatial Distribution of Dental Clinics in Pasig City, Philippines: A GIS-Based Approach

Background. Dental clinics are the extension of dental professionals in delivering oral health care; however, comprehensive data on their distribution remains limited. Spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offers a robust approach to evaluating disparities in dental service accessibility.

Objective. This study used ArcGIS to analyze the spatial distribution of private and public dental clinics across Pasig City, mapping their locations relative to population density and serving as a baseline for a feasibility assessment of a national study.

Methods. This is an ecologic study that employed an exploratory multigroup comparison design. Using GIS, the spatial distribution of dental health care facilities (dental clinics) in Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines was mapped in ArcGIS version 10.8.2. Data about the dental clinics in Pasig City were obtained from the Pasig City Government. Locations of each clinic were geocoded using ArcGIS. Population data were obtained from the Pasig City Government and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Analysis was conducted to assess population coverage within 5-kilometer radii of dental clinics, and clinic-to-population (CtP) ratios were calculated to evaluate service distribution.

Results. A total of 40 public dental clinics and 191 private dental clinics were distributed across the 30 barangays with a total population of 680,135. The dental clinic-to-population (CtP) ratio was 1:2,945, and the barangay with the lowest CtP ratio is Brgy. Sta Lucia. The barangays of San Antonio and Sta. Rosa had the highest CtP ratios: 1:199 and 1:98, respectively. The public dental clinic-to-population (PuCtP) ratio was highest in Brgy. Sta. Rosa, with the average PuCtP ratio in Pasig being 1:17,003. Over ten years, the number of private dental clinics generally trended upwards for six of those years. However, within that decade, there were also three years during which the number of clinics decreased. Several challenges were identified in the data collection and analysis for a national study on dental facilities. The study revealed the primary issues: the absence of a centralized database of information on the list of private dental health facilities and a centralized list of all public health facilities, including hospital-based facilities. Additionally, the Local Government Unit (LGU) list of population statistics differs from the numbers provided by the PSA. Despite these issues, using online data collection and analysis makes this study replicable on a national scale.

Conclusion. There is variability in the spatial distribution of private and public dental clinics in Pasig City, whereas private dental clinics were more concentrated in the highly commercialized barangays of the city. The findings and methodology of this study demonstrate the feasibility of mapping dental service distribution at a city level, providing a baseline for scaling to a regional or national level study.