Table 4 Characteristics of the included publications

Study aims/product

Methods development and/or evaluation

Estimation of catchment areas and/or population denominators

Computation of distance- or travel time-based model covariate

Other study aim(s)

Type of catchment estimation method or accessibility measure used

Alignment with administrative boundaries

Straight-line distance

Network distance

Travel time/cost impedance modelling

Model-based geostatistics

Type of denominator estimation method used

Aggregation of administrative unit population counts

Intersection of catchment boundaries with fine spatial-scale gridded population surface

Complete enumeration within Health and Demographic Surveillance System area

No denominator estimation

Data types used in the estimation process

Purposive collection of origin/destination data

Data collected by Health and Demographic Surveillance System

Data extracted from Health Management Information System

Nationally representative household survey data

Spatial datasets, including road/footpath networks, land cover, topographic barriers to movement

Population counts by administrative unit

Fine spatial-scale gridded population surface

Source of data for health facility geolocation

Onsite geolocation by field survey

Routine geolocation of all health facilities within Health and Demographic Surveillance System area

Study conducted in single or small number of health facilities

Data held by national health system

Regional database of geolocated public health facilities

Other open data source

Approach to evaluation of estimation methods

Comparison against independent or purposively collected data

Direct comparison of multiple estimation methods using single analysis dataset

Sensitivity analysis or other statistical comparisons using single analysis dataset

Evaluation of candidate model specifications using a validation subset

No methods evaluation

Relevant estimation outputs presented

Map delineating health facility catchment areas and boundaries

Isochrone map visualising health facility/service accessibility by travel time/distance strata

Distance decay curve for the health indicator of interest

Population denominators at level of individual health facilities

Population denominators at other level of spatial aggregation