Communities with a majority of racial and ethnic minority residents are less likely than White-majority communities to have convenient access to a pharmacy, according to a new study from scholars at the Boston University School of Public Health and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
“When a pharmacy is absent in a neighborhood because it closed or was never there, this can create barriers for residents to not only obtain medications, but other essential health services, such as vaccines [and] testing and treatment for multiple diseases and conditions,” said first author Elaine Nsoesie, an associate professor of global health at Boston University.
For their study, the authors reviewed data from mobile phones in more than 112,000 census blocks throughout the country. In both 2019 and 2023 (i.e. before and after the COVID-19 pandemic), predominately White and racially diverse neighborhoods had more pharmacies than predominately Hispanic and predominately Black neighborhoods. Notably, White and diverse neighborhoods with at least one pharmacy had higher median incomes than their counterparts with no pharmacies. But communities with predominately Black or Hispanic residents had similar median household incomes in areas with or without pharmacies. According to the authors, this suggests race may be a stronger determinant of limited pharmacy access than income alone.
When tracking movement of mobile devices, the authors found that people in White neighborhoods were more likely to visit pharmacies in similar neighborhoods, while people in Black and Hispanic communities with fewer pharmacies tended to travel to pharmacies in diverse neighborhoods.
“Researchers have written about the need to develop policies and financing programs that encourage pharmacies to be located in pharmacy deserts,” said Dr. Nsoesie. “We suggest that such policies could be coupled with affordable and accessible transportation. However, any long-term solutions should consider the specific needs of the local community to ensure that solutions are effective.”
