Toward Equitable Access: Leveraging Crowdsourced Reviews to Investigate Public Perceptions of Health Resource Accessibility
It addresses health equity issues for policymakers and researchers by identifying key factors influencing accessibility perceptions, though it is incremental in applying existing methods to new data.
This study analyzed public perceptions of health resource accessibility in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic using crowdsourced Google Maps reviews and NLP, finding significant disparities that peaked during the crisis and were linked to political affiliation, race, and education levels.
Access to health resources is a critical determinant of public well-being and societal resilience, particularly during public health crises when demand for medical services and preventive care surges. However, disparities in accessibility persist across demographic and geographic groups, raising concerns about equity. Traditional survey methods often fall short due to limitations in coverage, cost, and timeliness. This study leverages crowdsourced data from Google Maps reviews, applying advanced natural language processing techniques, specifically ModernBERT, to extract insights on public perceptions of health resource accessibility in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we employ Partial Least Squares regression to examine the relationship between accessibility perceptions and key socioeconomic and demographic factors including political affiliation, racial composition, and educational attainment. Our findings reveal that public perceptions of health resource accessibility varied significantly across the U.S., with disparities peaking during the pandemic and slightly easing post-crisis. Political affiliation, racial demographics, and education levels emerged as key factors shaping these perceptions. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions and policy measures to address inequities, fostering a more inclusive healthcare infrastructure that can better withstand future public health challenges.