Retail clinics serve wealthier neighborhoods-study

* Poor neighborhoods less likely to have access

* Municipalities may want to offer incentives for clinics

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO, May 25 (Reuters) - While seen as a way to improve health-care access for the poor and uninsured, retail clinics in the United States tend to be clustered in higher-income neighborhoods, researchers said on Monday.

Located in grocery stores and retail chains such as Walgreen Co (WAG.N), CVS Caremark (CVS.N) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), retail clinics offer convenient, walk-in hours for flu shots, treatment of sore throats and other basic services.

They have taken off since 2000, and there are now roughly 1,000 of them in the nation.

"Poorer neighborhoods are less likely to have access to these clinics," Dr. Craig Pollack of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine said in a statement following a study of 1,000 such clinics.

Using mapping software and Census data, Pollack and his colleagues found that the clinics were located in areas with a lower population of black residents, lower poverty rates, and higher median incomes than areas without retail clinics.

"They are significantly less likely to be located in poor or underserved neighborhoods," he added.