The Relationship between Transport Accessibility of Emergency Medical Care and Mortality Rates in Municipalities of the Central Federal District

In Russia, the most common causes of death are cardiovascular diseases at older ages and external causes at younger ages. In both cases, survival largely depends on the time elapsed between the onset of the condition or injury and the provision of medical assistance. Under federal legislation, every citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to receive emergency medical care in life-threatening situations. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which overall mortality rates depend on the response time of emergency medical services (EMS) at the municipal level in the Central Federal District. The main finding is that an increase in EMS response time is associated with higher mortality only within the first 10 minutes, and this pattern is observed primarily in municipalities with a high proportion of urban population. Significant intra-regional inequality in the accessibility of emergency medical care is also identified.