Geographical detector-based assessment of multi-level explanatory powers of determinants on China’s medical-service resumption during the COVID-19 epidemic

Abstract

Knowing the multi-level influences of determinants on medical-service resumptions is of great benefits to the policymaking for medical-service recovery at different levels of study units during the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. This article evaluated the hospital- and city-level resumptions of medical services in mainland China based on the data of location-based service (LBS) requests of mobile devices during the two time periods (December 2019 and from February 21 to March 18, 2020). We selected medical-service capacity, human movement, epidemic severity, and socioeconomic factors as the potential determinants on medical-service resumptions and then explicitly assessed their multi-level explanatory powers and the interactive effects of paired determinants using the geographical detector method. The results indicate that various determinants had different individual explanatory powers and interactive relationships/effects at different levels of medical-service resumptions. The current study provides a novel multi-level insight for assessing work resumption and individual/interactive influences of determinants, and considerable implications for regionalized recovery strategies of medical services.