Examining the Relationship Between Access to Healthcare and Marginalization in Toronto

This study analyzes the association between healthcare accessibility and marginalization using the city of Toronto as a case study. Access to healthcare is determined by the 2020 Statistics Canada Proximity Measures Database, and marginalization is measured using the four dimensions of marginalization in the 2016 Ontario Marginalization Index. Techniques such as choropleth mapping and Univariate global and local Moran’s I were applied, followed by an OLS and Lag-error regression. The results indicated that as material deprivation increased healthcare access decreased, and that as dependency increased access increased – however they were not statistically significant. Conversely, ethnic concentration and residential instability were statistically significant, and increased as accessibility to healthcare increased. Based on these results, it was concluded that greater marginalization led to greater healthcare access in Toronto. These results contradicted one of this study’s working hypotheses and recent research on healthcare accessibility, that find that as marginalization increases healthcare accessibility decreases.