Tokyo Vulerability and Healthcare Accessibility

The ongoing multi-wave COVID-19 pandemic has disproportional impacts on people with different demographic and socioeconomic background, and their access to healthcare facilities. Vulnerable neighborhoods with low healthcare access are places most needed for the enhancement of medical resources and services. Measuring vulnerability to COVID-19 and healthcare accessibility at the fine-grained level serves as the foundation for spatially explicit health planning and policy making in response to future public health crisis. Despite of its importance, the evaluation of vulnerability and healthcare accessibility is insufficient in Japan—a nation with high population density and super-aging challenge. Drawing on the latest 2022 census data at the smallest statistical unit, as well as transport network, medical and digital cadastral data, land use maps, and points of interest data, our study reformulates the concept of vulnerability in the context of COVID-19 and constructs the first fine-grained measure of vulnerability and healthcare accessibility in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan—the most popular metropolitan region in the world. We delineate the vulnerable neighborhoods with low healthcare access and further evaluate the disparity in healthcare access and built environment of areas at different levels of vulnerability. Our outcome datasets and findings provide nuanced and timely evidence to government and health authorities to have a holistic and latest understanding of social vulnerability to COVID-19 and healthcare access at a fine-grained level. Our analytical framework can be employed to different geographic contexts, guiding through the place-based health planning and policy making in the post-COVID era and beyond.