Health Boundary Data

Health boundaries have been used as sampling units for exploring variations in health outcomes among populations. These health boundaries in most cases, overlap with administrative boundaries in countries where such data exist. One major challenge with this overlap is that with constantly changing administrative boundaries of countries, corresponding health catchment area boundaries change as well, although this might not necessarily signal a change in health service delivery capability or dynamics. A health boundary is delineated in geospatial data as a polygon surrounding all the villages or communities served by a health facility or health service. These health boundaries exist at different geographical hierarchies in countries where such data has been mapped. Different approaches have been used by organizations to create these health boundaries. The approach considered depends on the purpose of creating such boundaries (service provision versus monitoring/supervision), the resources available to the organization and to some extent, accessibility to communities (e.g areas of conflict, displaced populations).