This paper studies the effects of rural infrastructure development on agricultural production technical efficiency, using data from the second agricultural census of China. Employing Data Envelopment Analysis, this paper first estimates agricultural production technical efficiency of each administrative area of China. A Tobit model is then applied to study the effects on agricultural production...

Background: This study evaluated the quality of drinking water in rural areas of the city of Babol in terms of chemical parameters (iron, manganese, nitrite, and nitrate) and compared it with the Iranian and the World Health Organization (WHO) standards to determine the trend. Methods: This cross-sectional study monitored chemical test results for the years 2011-2014 of samples collected from ...

Twenty percent of the US population lives in rural communities, but only about 9% of the nation's physicians practice in those communities. There is little doubt that the more highly specialized physicians are, the less likely they are to practice or settle in rural areas. There is clearly a population threshold below which it is not feasible for specialist (in contrast to generalist) physician...

INTRODUCTION Respiratory illness is a leading cause of death worldwide, with rates that will continue to escalate into the foreseeable future. Rural residents have an increased risk of dying from some forms of respiratory disease, although little is known about the healthcare utilization or location of death for persons with advanced respiratory illness in rural settings. The purpose of this st...

The frequency of anti-Toxocara spp. antibodies in individuals attended by the Centro de Salud Familiar in the coastal Niebla town, Chile, was related to the host and to environmental factors. IgG anti- Toxocara antibodies were detected with a commercial ELISA kit (SCIMEDX Corporation, USA). Samples with undetermined absorbance values were subjected to an additional ELISA standardized by the Ins...

This study examined edentulism (total absence of natural dentition) trends among adults’ users of public oral health care in Victoria, Australia and factors associated with these trends. The sample comprised 13,578 dental clients of public oral health care services, collected between July 2008 and June 2009, from which data were complete. The group of edentulous clients represented 6.8% of all ...

BACKGROUND Bangladesh is a highly populous country with three-quarters rural population. Pressing national shortages in health professionals has resulted in high vacancy rates in rural areas. These are compounded by excessive absenteeism and low retention among nurses and doctors posted to rural locations. This study attempts to ascertain reasons for providers' reluctance to work in rural and r...

In an external review of the admissions process for the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Canada, it was suggested that admissions policies be modified to increase the enrolment of students more likely to practise in rural locations, by selecting a cohort of students with attributes reflecting potential for rural practice. A broad-based Working Group devised a framework for scoring p...

INTRODUCTION Urban centres often perform audits of vancomycin use as they face outbreaks of resistant organisms. We undertook this study to understand the indications and duration of intravenous vancomycin in a rural setting. METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart audit for all patients who received intravenous vancomycin over a 3-year period at a rural hospital in northwestern Ontario. ...