Healthcare as a Determinant of Socioeconomic Security – Regional Disparities in Poland

Abstract

Healthcare constitutes essential determinant of socioeconomic security, both for individuals and in regard to national economies. It includes numerous elements, such as healthcare infrastructure, medical personnel and access to medical procedures and services. Moreover, its organizational, financial and political aspects create crucial factors of healthcare system. The main objective of the research is to identify and evaluate healthcare disparities in Poland on regional level, i.e. 16 provinces (NUTS 2 regions). The parallel aim is to assess the changes in spatial layout between 2010 and 2017. The selected method of multivariate comparative analysis was conducted. Two main research hypotheses were put forward: H1 - Significant regional disparities in healthcare exist both in regard to healthcare infrastructure, medical personnel and intensity of healthcare services and H2 - Inferior healthcare quality in certain regions results in lower socioeconomic security in the aforementioned regions than in the rest of Poland. Obtained research results indicated considerable regional disparities in regard to healthcare; the persistence of disparities in both healthcare infrastructure, medical personnel and healthcare services can be perceived as the essential barrier for equal socioeconomic security.

Keywords

• Healthcare
• socioeconomic security
• Poland
• regional disparities
• multivariate comparative analysis