"Neighborhoods and health" research has shown that area social factors are associated with the health outcomes that patients with cancer experience across the cancer control continuum. To date, most of this research has been focused on the attributes of urban areas that are associated with residents' poor cancer outcomes with less focused on attributes of rural areas that may be associated with...

PURPOSE The aim of the present study was to compare the prevalence of self-reported and confirmable allergic rhinitis (AR) with positive skin prick test (SPT) results among adults living in urban and rural areas of China. METHODS Adults from a community in Beijing and a village in Baoding were selected as representative urban and rural dwellers, respectively. All eligible residents were enrol...

OBJECTIVES To investigate medical student's self-efficacy at the time of finishing their rural clinical school (RCS) placement and factors associated with self-efficacy. Secondary aims are to explore whether interest levels or self-efficacy are associated with rural or remote career intentions. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A cross-sectional study of medical students who had completed thei...

Children's exposure to metals can result in adverse effects such as cognitive function impairments. This study aimed to evaluate some toxic metals and levels of essential trace elements in blood, hair, and drinking water in children from a rural area of Southern Brazil. Cognitive ability and δ-aminolevulinate dehydratase (ALA-D) activity were evaluated. Oxidative stress was evaluated as a main ...

Migration plays an important role in the process of economic development and social transformation. This paper analyzes the push factors of rural to urban labour migration. The empirical results shows that increasing per capita Net State Domestic Product decreases the number of out-migrants from the rural areas of that state whereas increasing the proportion of population living below poverty l...

The paper discusses the institutional reforms for rural electrification (RE) in Thailand and Bangladesh and analyses the impacts of private sector participation in electricity generation and tariff reforms on the poor in Thailand. RE program in Thailand, initiated in 1977, increased electricity access by rural households from 7% in early 70s to 97% by 2000. In Bangladesh the RE program, initiat...

Socioeconomic trends and developments within the U.S. healthcare system have challenged rural hospitals' ability to maintain adequate operating margins and offer needed services. However, some hospitals have fared better in this negative environment than have others. To clarify factors that distinguish the most viable rural Catholic hospitals from the least viable, our study identified a group ...

The New South Wales Department of Health (NSW Health) wishes to make appropriate use of casemix data as inputs to the determination of funding levels for small rural hospitals. However, other factors such as hospital size and degree of isolation might need to be taken into account. The study reported here involved correlation of actual expenditures with those predicted by use of a casemix model...

Background: The activity concentrations of some radionuclides in soil samples collected from 20 locations in 8 major towns in Oyo State, Southwestern Nigeria have been determined by gamma-ray spectrometry technique. Materials and Methods: The activity concentrations were determined using high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector (Canberra Industries Inc.). The outdoor absorbed dose rates in air at ...