Currently Being Prepared
Further Developments - Being Revised and Updated
Continuing Research During 2026 and 2027

Background

The former Division of Government Research (DGR), part of the Institute for Applied Research Services (IARS) at UNM developed a special purpose statewide gravity model for measuring geographic access to health care facilities and providers in New Mexico. This work was performed for the former New Mexico Health Policy Commission (NM HPC) from 1998 through 2002 as an addition to comprehensive statistical work with New Mexico's health care data. The results of this preliminary work were only published on DGR's former web page and also in a limited distribution publication by the NM HPC ( HPC Quick Facts 2003 - color extract). A special poster presentation was also prepared that won the poster contest at the 2002 ESRI SWUG Conference held in Taos, New Mexico ( now Esri Southwest User Conference).

Previous, Current, and Ongoing Developments

This research has focused on evaluating various spatial-statistical methods used for measuring geographic accessibillity to health care facilities and services using the example of primary care. For more background information and results from previous preliminary research please see these web pages:

The intent of this further ongoing research is to expand on this previous research and to incorporate a theoretical basis for the application of these methods. I am a geographer with a limited but improving background in public and population health. I recently completed PH 221 - Introduction to Social, Cultural, Behavior Theory (Spring, 2026). This class and others have provided me with additional useful background material that helped improve my understanding of public and population health (see my Intervention Design Project Poster prepared for this class). I intend to provide some examples of how selelected spatial-statistical methods can be integrated with established public and population health theories to help design a future community-oriented intervention project. These example spatial-statistical methods will be based on the results of the comparative analyses conducted during previous research. Hopefully, this work will eventually be conducted with the collaboration of other applied researchers. This should be an interdisciplinary project composed of state, university, private, and public participants with a focus on providing the best possible information for policymakers to help improve the quality of health care for all communities in the state.

Additional Testing and Developments with Older (2020 & 2021) Data

Based on my previous preliminary research and current studies I have decided to statistically compare a composite index based on the social determinants of health (SDOH) health care access and quality domain with another composite index derived from the other three or four SDOH domains. I will develop several versions of the health care access and quality index (HCAQI) as it needs to use results from several variations of 2SFCA/E2SFCA gravity models combined with the percentage of persons without health insurance. Each HCAQI will be statistically compared with several other socio-economic based indexes (SEIs) derived from the other three or four SDOH domains. My previously developed special test SDOH (Index_V1SEH - see PDF and web map) that is based on the North Carolina SDOH (see PDF) and Esri’s Socio-economic Status Index ( ESRI_SEI and web map). I will eventually develop another socio-economic based index modeled after the Public Health Alliance of California’s Healthy Place Index( HPI - web map being prepared). I will be using both geographically weighted regression ( GWR) and multiscale geographically weighted regression ( MGWR) for these statistical comparisons. The intent of these data-driven analyses is to see if these spatial-statistical methods can produce practical, reliable, and potentially useful geographically based measures of health care disparities for New Mexico’s communities. My previous preliminary research (example web map) has indicates that these spatial-statistical models have provided significant improvements compared with tradiditional nonspatial statistical methods and these additional developments are intended to further illustrate their utility.

Note: The 2SFCA/E2SFCA geographic access gravity models I will use can contain primary care physician locations aggregated to either census tracts, zip codes, or reported locations (mostly work but some home). The aggregate measures are the geographic centers (centroids) of census tracts or zip codes and when appropriate a reasonable approximate location closer to settelments in large sparsely populated census tracts or zip codes. My previous research indicated that using zip codes instead of actual physician locations possibly provides more reasonable results for a large state such as New Mexico with dispersed rural and unoccupied areas. However, I will be evaluating a selected series of models using just census tracts, census tracts combined with zip codes, and census tracts with actual physician locations. The selection will be based on the results of previous work using only the models with a particular distance decay function (exponential, Gaussian, power, or modified power) that had the highest Pearson's correlations (nonspatial) with socio-economic indexes. Special Note: After developing several versions of the health care access and quality index (HCAQI) and comparing the correlations (nonspatial) with socio-economic indexes I have obtained some different and somewhat better results. I will use these results to guide my selection of which distance decay function to use for the GWR and MGWR spatial-statistical based analyses. The following previously developed Python(pandas) tables are being replaced with new tables (SAS) that have the results of the socio-economic indices and HCAQI correlations (nonspatial) that have guided my decisions.

I expected to find that there are some significant differences in the results obtained from models that are based on various combinations of data collection units (census tracts and zip codes) or individual physician locations due to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem MAUP. An understanding of this problem is essential for evaluating results and should facilitate the choice of an appropriate practical and useful models for future use especially for comparing accessibility and disparities among communities. I am also working on developing a hybrid 2SFCA/ES2FCA model that will calculate and combine different accessibility measures for the urban and rural areas. This hybrid 2SFCA/E2SFCA model will use a smaller catchment area for urban areas and a larger catchment area for rural areas. There will be different distance decay functions for the urban and the rural areas. The population of census block groups instead of census tracts may be used for the urban areas.

Census tract populations and zip code aggregated physician locations ( web maps)

The model with exponential distance decay had the highest correlation (0.342036) with the Esri SEI index. The following Python(pandas) table shows the correlations (nonspatial) between Esri's Socioeconomic Status Index (SEI) and Two-Step (2S) Hybrid Zonal (HZ) gravity models with different distance decay functions (E - Exponential, G- Gaussian, P - Power, and D - DGR Power). Prepared using road distances from an Origin-Destination Matrix (ODM). Note: The gravity model results are physician-to-population ratios.
Esri SEI and 2S Gravity Models (CTZIP - ODM)
Census Tracts (CT - Demand/Population) and ZIP Codes (ZIP - Supply/Physicians)

Note: The spatial-statistical GWR and MGWR results are currently being prepared and will include web maps of indexes and their components...

Census tracts for both populations and aggregated physicians locations ( web maps)

The following table shows the correlations (nonspatial) between Esri's Socioeconomic Status Index (ESRI_SEI) and another special socio-economic index (Index_V1SEH) with two other health care quality and accessibility (HCAQI) indexes. These other indexes are derived from the combination of results from Two-Step (2S) Hybrid Zonal (HZ) gravity models with the percentage of persons without health insurance. Each gravity model uses different distance decay functions (E - Exponential, G- Gaussian, P - Power, and D - DGR Power) that have been prepared using road distances from an Origin-Destination Matrix (ODM). The HCAQI with modified power (DGR) distance decay function had the best correlation (0.10934) with the Esri SEI index. However, the HCAQI with the Gaussian distance decay function had the best correlation (0.18187) with the special index (Index_V1SEH). Note: The gravity model results are physician-to-population ratios.
Correlations of Socio-Economic Indexes with HCAQI Indexes
Census Tracts for both Demand/Population and Supply/Physicians, ODM

Note: The spatial-statistical GWR and MGWR results are currently being prepared and will include web maps of indexes and their components. The first following table shows a portion of the MGWR results for the dependent variable (I_2SDPCTNHI) and explanatory variable (ESRI_SEI). The second following table shows a portion of the MGWR results for the dependent variable (I_2SGPCTNHI) and explanatory variable (Index_V1SEH). The MGWR model (I_2SDPCTNHI and ESRI_SEI) performed slightly better than the other (I_2SGPCTNHI and Index_V1SEH) MGWR model. The web maps for this stronger relationship indicate the utility of this spatial-statistical model for examining the distribution of various factors related to health care accessibility and disparities among New Mexico's communities.
GWR and MGWR Results - I_2SDPCTNHI and ESRI_SEI

GWR and MGWR Results - I_2SGPCTNHI and Index_V1SEH

Census tracts populations and physicians locations ( web maps)

The model with exponential distance decay had the second lowest correlation (0.180336) with the Esri SEI index. The following Python(pandas) table shows the correlations (nonspatial) between Esri's Socioeconomic Status Index (SEI) and Two-Step (2S) Hybrid Zonal (HZ) gravity models with different distance decay functions (E - Exponential, G- Gaussian, P - Power, and D - DGR Power). Prepared using road distances from an Origin-Destination Matrix (ODM).
Esri SEI and 2S Gravity Models (CTPhys - ODM)
Census Tracts (CT - Demand/Population) and Physician Locations (Phys - Supply/Physicians).

Note: The spatial-statistical GWR and MGWR results are currently being prepared and will include web maps of indexes and their components...

Ongoing Developments with Current (2025) Data

Preliminary Discussion (being prepared)

Some Related Links and Publications

Address and Contact Information

 Larry Spear, Sr. Research Scientist (Ret.) 
 Division of Government Research
 University of New Mexico 
	            
 Email: lspear@unm.edu  lspearnm@gmail.com 
 WWW: https://www.unm.edu/~lspear
 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-spear-93371970
UNM UNM's Home Page

Last Revised: 8/16/2026 Larry Spear (lspear@unm.edu)