Rural health

In medicine, rural health is the interdisciplinary study of health and health care delivery in the context of a rural environment or location.

Some of the fields of study comprising rural health include: health, geography, midwifery (remote locations often do not have an OB/GYN), nursing, sociology, economics, telehealth/telemedicine, etc.

The problem in defining rural
Rural can be defined in many ways, such as by population density, by geographic location or other. Due to the large number of choices in the definition parties may often disagree with one another on which definition to use.

Rural Health definitions can be different for establishing underserved areas or health care accessibility in rural areas of the United States. According to the handbook, Definitions of Rural: A Handbook for Health Policy Makers and Researchers, “Residents of metropolitan counties are generally thought to have easy access to the relatively concentrated health services of the county’s central areas. However, some metropolitan counties are so large that they contain small towns and rural, sparsely populated areas that are isolated from these central clusters and their corresponding health services by physical barriers.” To address this type of rural area, “Harold Goldsmith, Dena Puskin, and Dianne Stiles (1992) described a methodology to identify small towns and rural areas within large metropolitan counties (LMCs) that were isolated from central areas by distance or other physical features.”  This became the Goldsmith Modification definition of rural. “The Goldsmith Modification has been useful for expanding the eligibility for federal programs that assist rural populations—to include the isolated rural populations of large metropolitan counties.”

Issues in rural health

 * Underserviced delivery due to a lack or maldistribution of resources, both in terms of money and labour.
 * Lack of specialty services. Medical specialists often do not have enough 'critical mass' of patients to allow them to economically serve a low population area. The hardship on patients can be particularly demanding in some illnesses, say cancer, in which treatment requires regular long distance travel.

Links

 * Office of Rural Health. Health Agency of Canada
 * Center for Rural and Northern Health Research. Laurentian University
 * Rural health policy. United States Department of Health and Human Services
 * National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
 * Arizona's rural hospital flexibility program serving rural hospitals and clinics and EMS providers
 * Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative Review & Commentary on Health Policy Issues for a Rural Perspective
 * Health Resources USDA, National Agricultural Library, Rural Information Center.
 * Rural Assistance Center

santé dans les milieux ruraux