With the rapid growth of aging populations in South Korea, it is important to assess spatial accessibility to healthcare resources as older adults may need frequent visits to hospitals. Healthcare spatial accessibility is measured based on available resources (e.g., physicians, beds, services), demands (e.g., population), and travel costs (e.g., distance or time). In this study, we employed an Enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (E2SFCA) method to measure the spatial accessibility to primary care for older populations (i.e., aged 65 and older) in major cities in South Korea, including Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan. We found that the aging population in Seoul, the capital and biggest city in South Korea, has relatively better accessibility than those living in other cities. We also discovered a negative relationship between accessibility to primary care and the aging index (i.e., population over 65 years old/population less than 15 years old); the regions with a higher ratio of older populations have lower accessibility to primary care. The results suggested that more primary care services (perhaps via mobile vans) are needed in regions predominantly with older people to improve their healthcare access.

Ornithobacterium rhinotrachealis (ORT) and Pasteurella multocida (PM) are two major bacterial pathogens affecting the United States (US) commercial turkey industry. This retrospective observational case-case study aimed to investigate the association between land cover and confirmed disease occurrences attributed to PM or ORT in commercial turkey sites located in the Midwestern US A total of 65 farms from one poultry production company were included, where 28 had PM disease occurrences and 37 had ORT disease occurrences between 2014 and 2021. Risk factors of interest included land cover types (wetlands, forest, urban, pasture, herbaceous, barren, shrub), poultry-farm density in the area, and season and year of confirmed outbreak(s). A multivariable logistic regression model revealed that for every 1 m increase in distance from a farm to the nearest wetland, the odds of a confirmed disease occurrence related to PM decreased by approximately 0.24% compared to an ORT-related disease occurrence (p = 0.004). Meanwhile, PM occurrence during 2014–2017 was 98.5% higher than 2018–2019 and 93.2% higher than in 2020–2021. Broadly, the findings contribute to the dearth of research on land cover and turkey respiratory diseases and demonstrate that land cover is an important consideration for farm management and future study.

This paper advances research on environmental justice through analysis of multiple concurrent environmental exposures (green space, air pollution, temperature) among overlooked marginalized populations (people with disabilities) during both summer and winter seasons in the year 2021. To date, environmental justice research and policy in the United States and other parts of the world have traditionally focused on how low-income communities and racialized minorities navigate higher levels of environmental hazards, and the adverse consequences to health and quality of life. Much less attention has been paid to environmental injustices among people with disabilities. This study contributes to this knowledge gap by (1) identifying seasonal neighborhood clusters with high environmental exposures and predominantly socially marginalized groups; and (2) quantifying the distributions of green space, air pollution, and temperature among disabled residents in the contiguous United States. Using local join count statistics for the first objective, 169 clusters were detected in 21 cities. These locations are where environmental risks are highest and environmental justice interventions are most needed. Philadelphia is notable for having the most hotspots, and for being the only city to have clusters in both summer and winter. Using Kruskal-Wallis tests and Generalized Additive Models for the second objective, the results suggest that neighborhoods with more residents with disabilities have more green space. The air pollution and temperature findings are inconclusive at the national scale, indicating a need for further investigation in regions or cities. This study contributes much needed empirical insights on environmental exposures among disabled populations as part of a larger endeavor to better understand how changing environmental conditions impact marginalized communities.