OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether rural consumer preferences for health services have changed over time or vary across communities with different models of health service delivery. DESIGN Questionnaire survey replicating a 1989 study, with ranking of seven different healthcare services. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Adult occupants from a 20% sample of private residences, in towns and on farms, in t...

Rural areas, where 47.6% of the Croatian population lives are not generally the focus of research; yet there are challenges which affect the rural population that often go unreported. These communities often exhibit disadvantages in many areas of health. The aim of this study is to examine the specific health needs and related determinants of rural populations influenced by transition that were...

INTRODUCTION Little evidence exists about the impact of strategies to increase rural retention in developing countries. To address Thailand's long-lasting critical shortage of doctors, two new government-funded projects to increase the production of rural doctors have been employed through collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). The present stud...

introduction: in order to fulfill the health and medical needs of rural people, iran's medical services insurance organization approved a plan to provide rural health insurance in 2005. the plan aimed to make an appropriate context for the activities of private health care service providers in the rural areas and to meet public expectations for access to specialized medical services. in this st...

BACKGROUND Due to large geographical distances, the telephone is central to enabling rural Australian communities to access care from their local health service. While there is a history of rural nurses providing care via the telephone, it has been a highly controversial practice that is not routinely documented and little is known about how the practice is governed. The lack of knowledge regar...

that in rural Uttar Pradesh (UP), only about one-fourth of women delivered their last child in an institution.a In 2005 the Janani Suraksha Yojana ( JSY) was launched as an intervention to address the barriers to institutional delivery, through the introduction of community-based women volunteers called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). Women in rural areas in low performing states ar...

A key proposition set out in Setting Priorities for the B.C. Health System and a subsequent document on B.C. Health System Strategy Implementation: A Collaborative and Focused Approach is that the current utilization of hospitals is neither sustainable nor the best delivery system for meeting the needs of several key populations. The documents argue the need to radically rethink and reposition ...

PURPOSE China's Ministry of Health has enacted Rural Primary Health Care Program (2001-2010) (HCP) guidelines to improve the quality of people's health. However, the program's success in Western China remains unevaluated. Thus, this study aims to begin to fill that gap by analyzing the provision and utilization of Rural Primary Health Care (RPHC) in Western China. METHODS A cross-sectional st...

Health care access issues present significant challenges for rural populations and health providers. Psychology can support improved access and quality of rural health services through the development of integrated behavior health programs within primary care settings. This article reviews a clinical training and service delivery program, the Rural Hawai’i Behavioral Health Program, which has e...