IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v364y2025ics027795362400995x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healthcare access in humanitarian settings: Mobile services successes and limits in Afghanistan

Author

Listed:
  • Iacoella, Francesco
  • Dehingia, Nabamallika
  • Almanzar, Miguel
  • Huynh, Uyen Kim
  • Bruckauf, Zlata

Abstract

With an ever-increasing number of humanitarian emergencies being declared around the globe, identifying effective methods to provide healthcare access to affected communities is all the more relevant to health practitioners. Mobile health services have been widely implemented by international and national actors to reach underserved communities in humanitarian contexts. Nonetheless, little rigorous evidence exists on the effects of such services. Our work contributes to filling the knowledge gap by studying the role of mobile health teams (MHTs) in Afghanistan after the institution of the Taliban De Facto Authority in 2021. We conduct correlational and quasi-experimental analysis of country-wide survey data and matched with geo-localised information on MHTs and their related service delivery points (SDPs) – at least in part of the country – from WHO and UNICEF. Our findings show mobile services enhance recent access to health care by about 11 percentage points (about 14% over comparison) based on our preferred model. We also identify a decreasing effect of number of MHTs and SDPs on healthcare access. Our results indicate that higher number of mobile services do not necessarily translate to better access, although strong differences exist between underserved and better served areas within the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Iacoella, Francesco & Dehingia, Nabamallika & Almanzar, Miguel & Huynh, Uyen Kim & Bruckauf, Zlata, 2025. "Healthcare access in humanitarian settings: Mobile services successes and limits in Afghanistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:364:y:2025:i:c:s027795362400995x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362400995X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117541?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arild Aakvik, 2001. "Bounding a Matching Estimator: The Case of a Norwegian Training Program," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(1), pages 115-143, February.
    2. Shivit Bakrania & Nikola Balvin & Silvio Daidone & Jacobus de Hoop & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2021. "Impact Evaluation in Settings of Fragility and Humanitarian Emergency," Papers indipa1185, Innocenti Discussion Papers.
    3. King, Gary & Honaker, James & Joseph, Anne & Scheve, Kenneth, 2001. "Analyzing Incomplete Political Science Data: An Alternative Algorithm for Multiple Imputation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(1), pages 49-69, March.
    4. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Avni, Omrit & Guetzkow, Joshua & Hasisi, Badi, 2024. "Bias in prosecutorial decision making: Bridging focal concerns & group threat," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Cristian Vaccari & Augusto Valeriani, 2018. "Digital Political Talk and Political Participation: Comparing Established and Third Wave Democracies," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, June.
    3. Scott Gehlbach & Konstantin Sonin & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2010. "Businessman Candidates," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 718-736, July.
    4. Sónia Cabral & Joana Garcia & Raquel Miranda & Susana Peralta & João Pereira dos Santos, 2024. "Treasure Islands, Real Jobs? Workers and Anti-Avoidance Policies in a Tax Paradise," Working Papers w202416, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    5. François Fall & Akim Almouksit, 2016. "The impact of formal financing on small informal enterprises in Comoros," Working Papers hal-01566389, HAL.
    6. Stefano Colonnello & Mariela Dal Borgo, 2024. "Raising Household Leverage: Evidence from Co-Financed Mortgages," Working Papers 2024: 01, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    7. Aiello, Francesco & Albanese, Giuseppe & Piselli, Paolo, 2019. "Good value for public money? The case of R&D policy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1057-1076.
    8. Anna Harvey & Taylor Mattia, 2022. "Does money have a conservative bias? Estimating the causal impact of Citizens United on state legislative preferences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(3), pages 417-441, June.
    9. Sergio Afcha & Jose García-Quevedo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 955-975.
    10. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Jing Wang & Gen Li & Kai-Lung Hui, 2022. "Monetary Incentives and Knowledge Spillover: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3549-3572, May.
    12. Katie Meara & Francesco Pastore & Allan Webster, 2020. "The gender pay gap in the USA: a matching study," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 271-305, January.
    13. Christophe Loussouarn & Carine Franc & Yann Videau & Julien Mousquès, 2021. "Can General Practitioners Be More Productive? The Impact of Teamwork and Cooperation with Nurses on GP Activities," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 680-698, March.
    14. Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2020. "Subsidizing Domestic Services as a Tool to Fight Unemployment: Effectiveness and Hidden Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 13544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jeon, Sung-Hee & Pohl, R. Vincent, 2019. "Medical innovation, education, and labor market outcomes of cancer patients," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Jian Jiu Chen & Sai Yin Ho & Wing Man Au & Man Ping Wang & Tai Hing Lam, 2015. "Family Smoking, Exposure to Secondhand Smoke at Home and Family Unhappiness in Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, November.
    18. Ihle, R. & Amikuzuno, J. & von Cramon-Taubadel, S. & Zorya, S., 2010. "Grenzeffekte in der Marktintegration bei Mais in Ostafrika: Einsichten aus einem semi-parametrischen Regressionsmodell," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 45, March.
    19. Philipp vom Berge & Achim Schmillen, 2023. "Effects of mass layoffs on local employment—evidence from geo-referenced data," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 509-539.
    20. Kube, Roland & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Löschel, Andreas & Massier, Philipp, 2019. "Do voluntary environmental programs reduce emissions? EMAS in the German manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:364:y:2025:i:c:s027795362400995x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.