Barriers to occupational and environmental medicine services in the southeastern United States.

Abstract

We sought to determine whether low-income and minority populations in the Southeast face barriers to access to occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) services. Access to OEM services was defined as the presence of an OEM physician in a county or the proximity of a clinic in the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics network to a county. Counties with higher percentages of low-income, all non-white minority, and African-American populations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were more likely to be farther away from an AOEC clinic. Counties with higher percentages of low-income populations were less likely to have an OEM physician. However, the percentages of minority and African-American populations in these counties were not associated with the presence of an OEM physician. Both low-income and minority populations in the Southeast face barriers to OEM services.