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Effect of Community Health Mapping on Identification of Health Service Gaps in Rural Nigerian Communities

Abstract

Identification of gaps in healthcare services is essential for effective health planning, equitable resource allocation, and improvement of healthcare access in underserved communities. Rural communities in Nigeria may experience shortages or uneven distribution of healthcare facilities, healthcare workers, essential medicines, diagnostic services, maternal and child health services, preventive healthcare programmes, transportation, and referral networks. These gaps may remain inadequately documented when health planning relies on incomplete or outdated information. Community health mapping provides a structured approach for identifying and visually documenting healthcare facilities, population needs, available services, geographic accessibility, referral pathways, and underserved areas. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of community health mapping on identification of health service gaps in rural Nigerian communities. The study will be anchored on the Social Ecological Model, Health Systems Framework, and Systems Theory. The Social Ecological Model emphasizes the interaction between individuals, communities, healthcare facilities, environmental conditions, and broader systems in determining access to healthcare services. The Health Systems Framework provides a basis for examining health service delivery, healthcare workforce, health information, medical products and technologies, financing, and access as interconnected components of healthcare provision. Systems Theory emphasizes the interdependence of healthcare facilities, communities, health workers, transportation networks, referral systems, and health-planning structures in determining healthcare availability and accessibility. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how community health mapping may improve identification of health service gaps in rural Nigerian communities. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental, descriptive analytical, or mixed-methods research design. The study population will comprise selected rural communities, healthcare facilities, community health workers, community leaders, and relevant health-planning personnel across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, local government areas, rural communities, households, healthcare facilities, and relevant participants. Community health mapping will be assessed using indicators such as identification and geographic location of healthcare facilities, mapping of available healthcare services, population distribution, distance to healthcare facilities, road and transportation accessibility, healthcare workforce availability, essential medicine availability, diagnostic services, maternal and child health services, immunization services, referral pathways, emergency services, and identification of underserved or hard-to-reach areas. Identification of health service gaps will be assessed using indicators such as documented shortages in healthcare facilities, health workers, essential medicines, equipment, diagnostic services, preventive services, maternal and child health services, referral systems, transportation, and geographic coverage. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, community mapping tools, geographic information system techniques where available, facility assessment checklists, health facility records, community health registers, key-informant interviews, and relevant local health-planning documents. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize community characteristics, healthcare resources, service availability, and identified gaps. Spatial and inferential analytical techniques will be used where appropriate to determine the relationship between community health mapping and identification of health service gaps. Comparative analysis may be conducted between communities with established health mapping activities and communities without comparable mapping activities. Diagnostic and validation procedures will also be conducted to assess the reliability, completeness, and consistency of the mapping and service-gap data. The study is expected to find that community health mapping has a significant positive effect on the identification of health service gaps in rural Nigerian communities. Communities with systematic health mapping are expected to demonstrate greater identification and documentation of underserved populations, poorly distributed healthcare facilities, shortages of healthcare workers and essential medicines, inadequate diagnostic services, weak referral pathways, and areas with limited geographic access to healthcare. Mapping may allow health planners and community stakeholders to visualize the distribution of healthcare resources relative to population needs and identify areas requiring additional services or resources. It may also improve community participation in health planning by enabling residents and local leaders to identify unmet healthcare needs that may not be adequately reflected in routine administrative data. However, inadequate mapping skills, limited access to geographic information technology, outdated population data, poor record-keeping, inadequate funding, weak coordination between communities and health authorities, and difficulties reaching remote areas may reduce the effectiveness of community health mapping. The study therefore expects accurate, participatory, regularly updated, and systematically implemented health mapping to contribute significantly to improved identification of health service gaps in rural Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on community health mapping, health service gaps, rural healthcare, healthcare accessibility, health planning, geographic health information, primary healthcare, health systems strengthening, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, state ministries of health, local government health authorities, primary healthcare facilities, community health workers, development partners, geographic information specialists, community leaders, and policymakers regarding strategies for identifying and addressing healthcare inequalities. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating community health mapping into rural health planning, strengthening geographic health information systems, regularly updating community and facility maps, involving local communities in health-resource assessment, improving data collection and management, and using mapped evidence to guide equitable allocation of healthcare facilities, personnel, equipment, medicines, and services across rural Nigerian communities.

Keywords: Community health mapping, health service gaps, rural communities, healthcare accessibility, health planning, geographic health information, primary healthcare, health systems strengthening, healthcare resources, Nigeria, public health.